


The Best & Worst Idea

by dangerouslyhopeful



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe-University, Angst, Bisexual Lance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Gay Keith, Happy Ending, Indications of depression and anxiety, Keith and Shiro are roommates, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mostly Langst, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Past Lance/Allura, Pidge Hunk and Lance are roommates, Shiro/Allura - Freeform, Slow Burn, The boys are overthinking everything 24/7, There probably wont be any major triggers in future chapters, smut in later chapters, will update tags with chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-03-19 13:49:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dangerouslyhopeful/pseuds/dangerouslyhopeful
Summary: [ON HIATUS]Lance undergoes the worst break-up of his 20 years in existence. Instead of disturbing the peace with his loud antics and energy fueled positivity like usual, Lance has spent the last week dragging his feet and mumbling one-worded sentences. That is until he has a spat with Keith outside of class, and proves to his friends that he's capable of being his regular self sometimes, if he's provoked enough. Pidge and Hunk need to pull lovesick Lance out of his depression and can probably use Keith to snap Lance back to his normal self. It's a good idea...right?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! So this is my first multi-chapter Klance piece and I hope it goes over well. It's kind of light but I needed to get it out of my system haha I can write about Klance for centuries and never grow tired of them tbh though
> 
> I'll post chapters as soon as I possibly can on an "I finally finished it yay!" basis. Most of the story is already written out, I just need to make some tweaks and do some edits and then I'll get it all up! 
> 
> Anyway, enough of the explanations that nobody asked for, I hope you like this and feel free to send any critiques or comments. I need to better my writing SOON so I'd love feedback! (:

“The one you love the most isn’t always the one you spend your life with…and that sucks.” Lance slumped on his bed, knees pulled up to his chest, and holding himself close. Rejections hurt, but break-ups ruin people.

One of Lance’s roommates, Hunk, placed a hand on his back and rubbed gently.

“Maybe not this time but possibly next time.” Hunk turned to look at their other roommate, Pidge, who stood at the front of the bed. She shook her head back and forth, waving her hands in front of her face.  Her and romantic advice didn’t usually go hand in hand.

Lance sniffed in between small whimpers. “I know I’m a chick magnet but all those other girls aren’t the one like she was.”

Pidge rolled her eyes. Lance was hardly a chick magnet before or after this relationship but she couldn’t very well say that now. She slowly maneuvered herself to sit in front of Lance on the bed.

“Listen Lance, if she was the one, you’d still be together. This just means that you’re not the one for her either, but just because you love her that doesn’t mean you won’t find the person you’re looking for.”

Wet spots started to take a toll on the bed. The whimpers were becoming heart-wrenching sobs.

Hunk glared at Pidge on his way to grabbing more tissues. She grimaced and hurried to pat Lance on the back.

“Lance just cry it out,” Hunk fitted a tissue into Lance’s hand. “You’ll feel at least a little better afterwards, then we can talk about it.”

The single tissue was certainly not enough after Lance finally decided to use it and blow his nose. He tossed the tissue, nearly hitting Pidge and found another in his hand shortly after.

After a series of back rubs and cooing, Lance lifted his head to face his friends directly. His weary eyes and the tip of his nose were completely red. The sight could have broken Pidge and Hunk’s hearts in that moment.

“Ready to talk?” Pidge smiled at him in an attempt to appear positive during Lance’s fit of melancholy.

“She told me,” Lance stopped to blow his nose. “That she found someone else.”

Hunk and Pidge winced silently as Lance continued.

“Someone who had more in common with her and took things more seriously,” His face scrunched up and he clicked his tongue. “I took everything seriously with us. I have no idea what she’s talking about.” The words came out strained and louder than Lance intended them to be.

“She might have just been looking for good reasons to break up without sounding too blunt.” Pidge said in a wholesome attempt to sound reassuring.

“Huh?” Lance blinked at Pidge. “You think she wanted to breakup with me even if I wasn’t doing anything wrong?” He leaned in closer to her, wide-eyes drowned in confusion.

Pidge gulped. “N-no that’s not what I—”

“What she meant,” Hunk interrupted. “I think, is that Allura could have had a different reason for breaking up but only blamed you to make her feel less guilty. Right Pidge?”

She side glanced at Hunk and darted her view back towards Lance, nodding in approval.

Lance sighed and hung his head. That wasn’t much better of an answer as far as he was concerned. “I’ll be okay. Just give me some time guys.”

“Okay, we’ll be here when you need us.” Hunk pat Lance on the back again and stood up. He left the box of tissues next to his friend and left the room.

“Call us if you need us.” Pidge added, while trailing behind Hunk.

“Mhm.” Lance waved a hand and rolled over on his bed.

This was the inevitability of his life. His heart was always strung along, tugged, and pushed before it was finally left behind. Finding himself in a relationship always made Lance happy. He was just in love with being in love. He knew this and moreso hated himself for it because look where it always got him.

Maybe he just wasn’t meant to be in a relationship. Even if he was happy, something was always missing and he could never figure out if the happiness was brought along by the idea of being in a relationship or the relationship itself and shouldn’t he know this?

He had to be cursed. That was it, he was giving up on dating.

 

A week passed since Lance’s recent breakup and each morning afterwards, Lance practically dragged himself out of bed and it was questionable as to if a zombie apocalypse started or not and if he was the first to be affected by it.

“Morning Lance. How’re doing?” Hunk asked, although the answer was obvious.

“I’ve seen brighter days.” Lance mumbled and sat at their small second-hand kitchen table. He grabbed an apple and gnawed on it while staring at the ground droopy-eyed.

Pidge finally emerged from her room too and must have felt the uneasiness in the air because she stopped suddenly and made a gesture to turn back before she decided to suck it up and go.

“Are you guys ready?” She asked in a voice as chipper as she could muster it up to be. 

“I think so,” Hunk trailed off and looked at Lance who didn’t realize either of them were there anymore. “Lance, buddy, you ready to go?”

“Uh-huh.” He tossed the partially eaten apple into the trash can and slung his backpack over his shoulder. Lance took in a deep breath and made way for the door. He didn’t bother pushing in his chair so Pidge took the liberty of doing that while shadowing him from behind.

“I’ll take notes for you today Lance,” She said while fitting on her shoes. “Just try to pay attention to the lesson at least.”

“Mhm, thanks.” Lance sighed again and scooted out the front door.

The wind outside was picking up and normally Lance would complain about this. Cold wind was the worst. Opening his mouth to vent about the wind now just felt like too much effort.

His mind could not stop wrapping itself around the idea that he was the problem. He was always the problem and this was now the worst breakup ever because he’s finally realizing just how much of it had to do with him.

Lately, the walk from their apartment complex to their university down the street, and from there to class, was a dangerous journey. Every 30 seconds consisted of Hunk yanking on Lance’s arm to help him dodge a tree or a pole.

Lance couldn’t stop looking down at his feet or at his phone, hoping for a “message of regret” to wash away his insecurities. He was utterly miserable.

Sad spells like this didn’t usually plague Lance and even if they did, they’d go away overnight. A good night’s rest was his go-to remedy, but shutting off the thoughts and falling asleep was becoming a harder and harder task to accomplish. He fought with Allura countless times and never moped nearly as much when the next day came around even when nothing had been resolved.

Lance could tell that the atmosphere was getting awkward and he especially hated that kind of thing. It was usually him who squashed awkward moments and brought the gang back up in its hype, but not today, not yesterday, and probably not tomorrow either. His friends would likely be blessed to hear his obnoxious talking right about now.

Blessings apparently came in all types of ironic forms and today that form was another boy named Keith, A.K.A Lance’s least favorite person on the planet.

Hunk took his eyes off of Lance for not even a minute to compare notes with Pidge before class would start, but when he turned to look back, Lance was on the ground.

“Shit, dude watch where you’re going!” Lance lifted himself up and harshly dusted off the back of his pants.

“I should watch where I’m going?” Keith look dumbfounded.  Lance hated how he always looked like he had no idea what he did wrong. “I wasn’t the one walking towards a door with my face buried in my phone.”

“There’s a window right there!” Lance pointed to a narrow, rectangular strip of glass on the door. “You could have easily seen me through that.”

“Who peeks through the window each time before they walk out of the door?” Keith was starting to raise his voice.

Lance gritted his teeth. “Oh, I don’t know Keith, people who are actually considerate of others walking in an out?”

“Oh my god. Get over yourself.” Keith rolled his eyes and darted past Lance without giving him the chance to retort.

“What the hell is that dude’s problem?” Lance grumbled and looked at Hunk and Pidge for acknowledgment. That was more energy in one minute than he’s used this entire last week.

His friends usually ignored his spats with Keith and just continued on with whatever they were doing but this time they looked shocked. Had he been that quiet? Did he say something worse than usual? Why were Pidge and Hunk now staring at each other knowingly?

“Well,” Pidge started. “Technically Keith did run into you this time, but usually you start it so it seems like fair payback to me.” 

“What?” Lance yelled and pointed a finger in the direction that Keith went. “He started this! All of this! With his stupid mullet and everything.” Lance folded him arms tightly in front of his chest.

Pidge and Hunk both raised an eyebrow at Lance.

“What does his hair have to do with—you know what, never mind,” Hunk shook his head. “He sure does work you up though, haven’t heard you that loud in a while.”

So Lance was right, his own voice was what shocked them this time. He didn’t think it was that bad. Then again, that hasn’t been the main concern running through his mind either.

“Yeah, nothing brings out another side of me like Keith Kogane.” Lance rolled his eyes.

Pidge smirked at Lance.

“Oh, we know.” She had an eerie look to her. It nearly gave Lance shivers.

Confusion glazed over Lance’s face momentarily but by then the anger settled down enough for him to not care anymore. He went into class to find his seat and didn’t give his friends or Keith a second thought after that.

 

After school, Lance laid in bed, refreshing the same apps over and over with no apparent goal. He stopped waiting for Allura to message him and just starting waiting. Pidge and Hunk said they had something to do and ran off immediately after their last class, leaving Lance to fend for himself. Which was fine because he needed the time alone. Or at least he thought he did and he felt better worrying about it by himself than having to share these feelings with his friends.

They were great friends and Lance couldn’t be thankful enough for Pidge’s parents allowing them all to room together in an apartment that they pay for each month, but sometimes he didn’t want to drag them into his messes. They would always be there for him and do what they think needs to be done in order to help him out but they really shouldn’t have to put so much effort into it on his behalf.

Lance thought back to earlier today. Keith really pissed him off. Thinking about Keith did nothing but remind him of how stupid he was and that wasn’t what he needed right now. The stupidity lied within the fact that Lance once had a crush on Keith, albeit a “love at first sight” type of crush but a crush nonetheless and Keith back then, ruined that in less than ten seconds with less than ten words.

If that didn’t prove that Lance just likes whoever and goes with it whenever then what does? His future was doomed. Was this even about Allura? Or was it about him feeling alone?

Before he could finish that thought, Lance received a text from Pidge asking if movie night was okay for this evening. Lance immediately responded with a confirmation. Like he was doing anything better this evening. Even with his head in the clouds, Lance liked to be with his friends and watching a movie did help to ease the tension so it couldn’t be too much of a burden to them. He looked forward to tonight and to eventually feeling better. Until then, sprawling out on the bed and staring at the ceiling would have to do the trick.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance is so sad and that makes me sad. It'll get better though Lance, I promise.
> 
> Talk to me about Klance or anything else really via my Tumblr:[rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

“Well look at that. Keith looks like a bonafide nerd in here.” Hunk chuckled as he and Pidge made their way to a small table towards the back of their university’s library.

“Heya Keith,” Pidge spoke and Keith jumped slightly and almost unnoticeably. She snorted and continued on. “Man, I never would have expected to find you here. Lance made it seem like you were some wild prep kid. It’s a Friday night, what are you doing?”

“Why would he think that…?” Keith looked between Pidge and Hunk uncomfortably. These two were Lance’s friends and he rarely had the pleasure of speaking to them as often as he regrettably did with Lance. “Anyway, I’m reading. What are you guys doing here?”

“We need to talk to you,” Hunk sat down in a chair across the table from Keith. He didn’t recall inviting him to sit down. “Our dear friend Lance is in a slump and we think you can help him.”

The confusion was only coming on harder.  His and Lance’s relationship was strictly a hate/hate relationship, or at least that’s what it always appeared to be.

“In what universe do you think that I can help Lance in a slump,” He placed an old receipt in his book and laid it on the table. “He hates me.”

“That’s exactly why you’re the best person to help out.” Pidge said, taking a chair as well, also without invitation.

“Not following. At all.”  Keith frowned.

“Recently, Lance’s girlfriend broke up with him,” Hunk started to explain the situation with a series of unrelated hand gestures and sad faces. “We haven’t gotten him to talk or utter a noise in a week!”

“We’ve tried everything,” Pidge continued the story. “We sat through his favorite movie, Shark Boy and Lava Girl,” that made Keith laugh but Pidge ignored it. “We bought him his favorite food. We even took him to the amusement park. He loves that place!”

“Okay…Still not following,” Keith looked at them with questioning eyes. “What does this have to do with me?”

Hunk started to explain again. “Today, when you and Lance had that mishap by the door, that was the first time Lance raised his voice in over a week and we all know how Lance likes to raise his voice.”

“So let me get this straight,” He narrowed his eyes at Hunk and Pidge. “You’re wanting me to provoke him just to get a reaction? Doesn’t that sound like a bad thing to do to someone who’s already feeling like crap?” Keith wasn’t an expert in love and the after effects of a breakup but he was pretty sure this wasn’t the way to cure it.

“Usually yes,” Pidge sighed. “But Lance is different when it comes to things like this. He needs something to start his ignition when he’s all out of fuel and we think you’d be the perfect lighter.”

“Look, we don’t want you to just harass him or anything like that, but we were wondering if you’d hangout with all of us because just that will get Lance going.” Hunk had this way to him where anything he said sounded like a surefire plan. Something that made no sense nearly made all the sense in the world when Hunk was arguing for it.

“I can’t do this.” Keith said. This really was out of his comfort zone. His random fallouts with Lance in general were out of his comfort zone.

“We don’t know what else to do Keith,” Hunk looked at him, the weariness showing. “If this doesn’t work out then we’re really sorry we even bothered, but what’s the worst that can happen if you and Lance already don’t get along?”

Keith didn’t need more than five seconds to come up with every worst possible scenario that could happen. The last thing he wanted was to make things worse with Lance, especially since they were already so engulfed in tension. He hated this idea, but deep down he couldn’t ignore the hint of excitement he felt, an urge that he’s suppressed for a couple years now.

A chance to get closer to Lance, even if only a .0001% chance, was a chance nonetheless. He bit his lip and groaned.

“Just so you guys know,” Keith rubbed a hand over his face. “This sounds like a terrible idea.”

“We know,” Pidge said. “But will you help us?”

Keith made a low disgruntled noise that took everything in him not to sound too annoyed.

“I’ll bake you cookies.” Hunk added in quickly and Pidge looked at him incredulously.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’ll help you help Lance,” Keith sighed and whole-heartedly felt like he had already regretted his answer. “Maybe this’ll clear up the tension between us…or make it worse.”

“Y-yeah maybe,” Hunk responded awkwardly. “I’d like to think it will help. If we go about it the right way at least.”

“When is this hangout supposed to happen anyway?” Keith asked. He needed to mentally prepare himself for the shit storm that was about to go down.

Pidge eyed Hunk with an expression that Keith did not get a good feeling out of.

She gave him a toothy smile.  “Funny you ask, because tonight is actually great for Hunk and I and you’re clearly not doing anything, soooo tonight?”

Pidge grinned widely.

Keith stared at her in disbelief.

“What kind of makeshift plans do you guys come up with?” Keith threw a hand up and brought it back down onto his book. “And besides, I was doing something.”

Pidge took a peek at the title of the book. It was “Voltron: Legendary Defender”. The first book in the series of bestselling novels about intergalactic adventures and soon to have its third book adapted into a film coming out the next day.

“Are you just starting the series?” Pidge asked, eyeing Keith’s book.

“No,” He followed her gaze towards the book. “This is my fourth time starting it.”

“No way! I love that series!” She exclaimed before quickly quieting down when the other students in the library popped their heads up from behind their laptops. “I have a great idea. Let’s watch the two movies tonight leading up to the third one coming out.”

Keith was torn by that offer and it must have been apparent to Pidge, because her face was that of a smug, undefeated debate champion. 

“Fine. But only because the film adaptations aren’t half bad.” At least it was Voltron. Anything else could really lose Keith’s attention and him thinking about Lance instead of the movie would inevitably lead to a terrible outcome.

“Right?” Pidge jerked her phone out of her pocket and Hunk sighed in relief. “I’ll text Lance now and let him know the plans.”

“Are you um—going to tell him that I’m coming?” Keith asked.

“Sure, sure,” Pidge was texting away. She received a response almost immediately. “He said it’s fine to have movie night, so we’re in the clear.”

“Oh, okay,” Keith looked uncomfortable. Lance willingly was allowing him to come over? He could only imagine what the message actually said. “Should I bring anything?”

“Just yourself and your signature Keith comebacks,” Hunk took out his phone as well. “What’s your number? I’ll send you our address. We all live together in an apartment near the campus. You can come at seven if that’s okay.”

“Yeah sure.” Keith complied and gave his contact info to Hunk.

Once Keith’s phone lit up with the message from Hunk the two disturbances got up to leave.

“Thanks a lot Keith,” Pidge smiled and waved. “We’ll see you later.”

“Yep, see you later.” He waved back cautiously until they turned around and left.

Keith waited until Pidge and Hunk were out of earshot before he let out an audible sigh.

How did this happen? His life was relatively calm and peaceful up until five minutes ago. Five minutes and he was persuaded to walk quite literally into a death trap. How and why is he going to his old crush’s apartment for a movie night? Is Lance even considered an old crush just because Keith tried to suppress that concern shortly after the first semester started?

He rubbed his temple and took deep breathes to ease his heartbeat. Of course, he loved the series that Pidge suggested watching but in reality he just wanted to squash whatever it was that was going on between him and Lance. He hadn’t the foggiest idea as to just why Lance hated him so much and he could never get himself to calm down enough around Lance to just ask him instead of firing back insults.

He figured heading home now would be a good idea. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and he wanted to at least make sure he showered before he went over to their place. It wouldn’t help Lance any if he might have smelled bad. Keith tucked his book into his backpack and made his way out of the library.

The bike ride home took about 15 minutes. All the while he tried to think up various excuses for why he couldn’t go anymore. Maybe he could say his bike got a flat? He was suddenly struck by food poisoning? He realized he hated Lance too much for this?

When he arrived at his own apartment he walked through the door and saw his roommate Shiro in the living room watching the news.

“Hey Keith,” Shiro reached for the controller and dropped the TV volume down a couple of notches. “Stay after class for something?”

“I was just in the library to read but I got pestered out of it and came back early.” Keith dropped his keys onto the counter and wedged off his shoes.

“Was it getting too loud in the library?” Shiro laughed.

“Something like that,” He grumbled in response. “I’m gonna shower and maybe head out again.”

“Where to?” Shiro looked interested now and Keith should have thought about that before opening his mouth. Shiro was the older brother that Keith never had. He went into a fit of curious questions every time Keith did something out of his usual habits, which was pretty rare in Shiro’s defense.

“Some people from my class are having a viewing party for the first two Voltron movies and I told them I’d come.”

“That’s a first,” Shiro looked impressed and Keith didn’t realize his lack of friends was that apparent. “Which classmates?” And of course Shiro would ask that too.

“Umm,” Keith walked to the refrigerator, still visible to Shiro from where he was sitting, and grabbed a cold water bottle. “This guy named Hunk, a girl named Katie who actually goes by Pidge,” he noted finally taking a second to consider the random nickname. “And Lance.”

“Lance,” Shiro dwelled on Lance’s name, and darn it Keith had hoped he forgot about Lance from past stories. “Is this the same Lance that you were talking about when you said you’d let him punch you any day for a chance to kiss him?”

Keith slammed the refrigerator door and whipped his head towards Shiro. “What are you talking about?”

Shiro shrugged. An irritating hint of amusement was plastered on his face. “Your words, not mine.”

Keith didn’t want to respond to that. He doesn’t remember saying that but then again it sounded pretty accurate and he may or may not say too much when he drinks with Shiro. His face felt like it was on fire.

“Okay so it is the same Lance,” Shiro laughed. “How’d you end up securing a hangout with them? Don’t you and Lance usually just fight?”

“Yeah,” Keith answered, focusing more on the heat draining from his face. “We still fight but Hunk and Pidge think that our bickering will cure Lance’s depression.”

Keith nodded at Shiro’s unsure expression. “I thought the same thing. I think I should back out of this. It’s not really a good idea.”

“It’s not?” Shiro asked and Keith looked back at him confused.

“Of course it’s not.”

“Well there was a reason you liked this guy to begin with right?” Shiro asked. Keith already knew where this was going, he did think the same thing after all. “Maybe you can find that guy again.”

“Maybe,” Keith pursed his lips and headed for his room. “I’ll give it a shot.”

“Alright and be careful coming home if you decide to go. I’ll probably be gone when you get back but I hope it turns out well. Text me if you need a savior.”

Keith snorted. Shiro sometimes acted more like a big brother than a friend but he didn’t really mind it that way. “Okay.”

 

By the time Keith stepped out of the shower Shiro was already gone. At least that saved him from any more embarrassing comments.

Keith knew this whole idea was stupid but he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to know Lance on a personal level that didn’t flourish on hatred.

His crush was stupid too. There was no real reason for him to start liking Lance and once he realized that Lance was a total jerk, the feelings should have faltered right then and there. Emphasis on the ‘should have’. When he considered the situation on his own, he knew it didn’t make sense to crush on Lance but every time he saw Lance it made perfect sense. It was ridiculous and dumb and all because Lance was so nice to him at the orientation for the University of Altea.

They originally met during their freshman orientation in which Keith accidentally dropped all of his new school documents on the ground and then some amazingly sweet looking guy hurried over and helped him gather everything. It was terribly embarrassing yet Keith was a bit thankful because this guy was nice to look at and even introduced himself afterwards.

Lance McClain.

Lance was tall, bright-eyed and gave off an energy that made Keith want to laugh. Not many people peaked his interest like this guy did.

They talked about what their majors were and what high schools they went to, ate together on campus and even took a trip to the bookstore together.

The bookstore was loaded with incoming students because on orientation day they tended to have annual sales which made text books even cheaper than they were online. An impossible thought but completely real when it came to the annual sale.

Keith and Lance separated to dig through crowds and find their books and accidentally met up in the math section later. Apparently they were both taking the same honors math class and found themselves reaching for the same book which so happened to be the last book left.

Lance completely brushed off the need to have the book and insisted that Keith take it. Lance told him that he could buy it online or borrow one of his roommates’ who were taking the same class, so it was fine.

Keith was hesitant and felt bad. He asked Lance, “Do you actually need this?” Which was bad wording on his part because he meant something more along the lines of “ _Don’t_ you really need this?” And that was still a dumb question but at least a little less dumb than his first question.

Lance however, made an extremely upset face, became distracted by a message on his phone, and frantically dashed towards the cash register.

The disappointment of Lance’s sudden retreat sunk in way too deep for Keith because he at least wanted to get Lance’s number and maybe get together again.

Whatever happened, Keith never did come to figure out and when class finally came around, he saw Lance in his honors math class and was greeted with terrifying glares instead of the friendly face he had first met. He didn’t get that either but brushed it off until Lance started to directly provoke him.

One day while leaving class, Keith could feel Lance leaving just behind him and then he literally felt Lance step on his heel to pull his shoe down and when he turned around to ask why, Lance was looking away with a hard frown.

“What’d you step on my shoe for?” Keith stopped not too far from the doorway and finally shot a death glare back at Lance.

“That’s what you get.” Lance folded his arms and walked away.

Keith was left in awe and from then on, half of their arguments sounded like “What did I do for you to be such an asshole to me?” followed by, “You know exactly what you did!”

Till this day, Keith had no idea what he did.

But maybe tonight he’ll find out.

Or maybe not.

The thoughts and memories of the past swam through Keith’s head while he stared himself down in the mirror. He made a few attempts at making his hair look a little more in place than usual. Should he dress nice or casual?

Casual. Duh.

Lance didn’t care what he looked like and no one gave their outfit a second guess when going over to a friend’s house to watch movies.

He ran a hand through his hair, threw on a red hoodie and jeans, then left.

 

Keith gulped as he stood outside of the trio of friends’ apartment. His heart was racing and Lance or no Lance he had no experience with going over to other houses. Especially alone.

It was dark and cold outside yet his body felt unbearably warm. He was seriously contemplating backing away, getting on his bike and hauling ass out of this entire situation. That was until the door flew open and Pidge nearly ran directly into him.

“Sorry Keith!” She looked completely startled but that faded and then she eyed him skeptically. “How long have you been standing there?”

“I just got here.” Keith lied. It wasn’t very long but still unnaturally long in comparison to when someone normally knocks on a door.

“Okay…well let me bring you inside. I was just about to go check our mail but I’ll let you settle in first.” She pushed the door open behind her.

“Alright.” Keith took in one last deep breath before stepping through the doorway. He had to continuously remind himself of the better potential outcomes of this rather than the worst case scenarios.

He looked around the apartment which was surprisingly clean for a place housed by college students. They had a lot of super hero and TV show posters on the walls and a larger video game collection than Keith had ever seen before.

 Lance was nowhere to be found yet and that was a big relief for Keith.

“Keith!” He heard his name exclaimed, thankfully with friendliness behind it. He didn’t notice Hunk in the kitchen while he visually inspected the apartment.

“Thanks again for coming, you won’t be disappointed with these.” Hunk gestured for Keith to come and proudly pushed the plate over the counter and towards him.

“Thanks.” Keith grabbed a cookie and started to eat while Hunk gloated and Pidge started to configure the Blu-ray player for the movie.

Keith forgot about the cookie promise, as if that would be the deciding factor for if he would do this or not. Honestly speaking though, after trying Hunk’s cookies, this could have easily been a foreseeable persuasion tactic in getting him to come over.

The thoughts of cookies and Hunk were completely halted when Lance walked out of a room in his black sweatpants and grey T-shirt, making it feel like time completely stopped. Maybe it did because everyone but Lance froze and watched his movements closely. Was anyone else even breathing because Keith was pretty sure that he was not.

Lance must not have noticed anyone at first because he walked past Pidge, Hunk and even Keith until he arrived at the source of the sweet aroma. He didn’t say anything, only grabbed a cookie and ate.

Eventually, after about 30 very long seconds and two cookies, Lance turned to the person next to him.

“Oh hell no,” Half of a cookie fell from his mouth. “What is Keith doing here?” He went bug-eyed momentarily and viciously looked between Pidge and Hunk.

“Hey! Keith is my new Voltron friend and you better leave him alone!” Pidge stood up and yelled back at Lance.

Keith too whipped around to look at Pidge because she said Lance was okay with this, which was clearly not true and Keith wanted to disappear immediately.

“He is my sworn enemy Pidge! Do you know what that means?” He was pointing a stern finger directly at Keith, and it was rude jabs like this that got his adrenaline running.

Keith slapped aside the hand in front of him, making Lance look at him directly again. Keith wouldn’t back down from an argument but now that he was up close to Lance, he could see the exhaustion in his features.

Lance’s usual bright eyes were dull and heavy, he probably hadn’t been sleeping. His hair was scruffy, his lips were chapped, his skin was splotchy, and eating didn’t look like something he did often anymore.

Suddenly Keith felt kind of terrible. Not nearly enough for his temper to simmer down completely, but enough for him to actually want to help, however he could.

“You know, not everything is about you, Lance.” Keith spat out.

“Yeah well you have some nerve to show up somewhere you’re not wanted.” Lance’s lip curled as he lashed back at Keith.

And again, Keith can’t help but wonder why Lance hates him so much.

“Pidge and Hunk invited me so obviously someone wants me here.”

Lance narrowed his eyes at his traitorous friends. “Whatever, count me out of the movie then.” He huffed and walked past Keith, heavy-footed.

“Oh no you don’t,” Hunk grabbed Lance with one hand and the plate of cookies with the other. He deposited Lance on the couch and put the plate of cookies on the coffee table in front of him. “You’ve had enough bedroom time today. It’s time to hang out with us.”

“You guys have a new best friend, what do you need me for?” Lance brooded on the couch and started eating more cookies anyway. Hunk must have known that Lance was a sucker for homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Keith could almost thank his hot headedness right now because it at least eased the uncomfortable feelings he harbored before. He wasn’t really sure if he actually preferred to be angry over being uncomfortable though.

“Cut it out Lance,” Pidge muted the main menu of the movie and went into the kitchen. “You know we’re nothing without you.”

Keith saw her roll her eyes and then saw Lance ease up slightly. Watching them actually interact with each other proved how close they were and Keith was starting to think maybe they actually knew what they were doing when Hunk and Pidge came up with such a ridiculous plan, or at least he hoped they did.  

“Do you want anything to drink Keith?” Pidge asked after she started the microwave to cook the first bag of popcorn.

“Water would be fine.” Keith answered, unsure whether he should go into the living room as well or just continue standing around in the kitchen.

“Okay,” Pidge handed him a water bottle and slipped her shoes back on. “Hunk, can you watch the popcorn and start a second bag when it’s done? I’m going on a second attempted mission to check the mail.”

“Sure.” Hunk walked away from his Lance baby-sitting job and stood by the microwave to listen out for final pops.

“Wanna come with me Keith?” Pidge asked while gripping the handle of their front door.

A loud grunt of disproval came from Lance in the other room so Keith immediately agreed just to get out of there.

When they both made it out of the apartment Keith decided to speak up.

“You said you’d tell Lance I was coming.” Keith grumbled as he followed Pidge down the walkway. He could see the apartment mailboxes already. Lucky them for living so close he thought to himself.

She sighed. “I know I did but Lance would absolutely not have agreed if I told him ahead of time.”

“I guess not.”

She twirled a set of keys on her finger and responded with pure confidence. “And you likely would not have come if you knew you would be walking into an awkward situation right off the bat.”

“Sure wouldn’t have.” Keith agreed, although he didn’t expect himself to walk into a pleasant situation either.

“Did you see him though?” Pidge started as she led them to the nearby mailboxes. “He acts like a zombie. He didn’t even see you at first.”

“He looks terrible,” Keith shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “Even I actually wish I could help that.”

“I’m hoping you can.”

When they arrived at the mailbox, Pidge pressed a key into their designated lock and started to sort through the unchecked mail.

“Hunk and I were thinking that maybe if you actually became friends with Lance then he’d talk to you. He’s shutting us out but maybe he needs to take a fresh approach to this and for some reason he won’t say more than one sentence at a time unless it’s to yell at you,” She shrugged and gathered the mail up. Her voice was softer now. “It might work. Hunk and I really don’t know what else to do and we usually always know what to do when it comes to Lance.”

She looked stressed out over this. Pidge and Hunk really cared about Lance. He wanted to care as much as they did but Lance made it so hard to.

When they got back inside Lance didn’t hesitate to start his shit again.

“Hey Pidge, hey unwelcomed bodily presence whom still should not be inside my apartment.” Lance said this right before engulfing another cookie.

Keith silently prayed to whoever was listening that this would work out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These boys are feisty. Lovely, but feisty.  
> Talk to me about Klance or anything else really via my Tumblr:[rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

A surge of anger shot through Lance once Pidge and Keith returned back inside from checking the mail. He let an offensive comment slip off of his tongue in an attempt to upset Keith before bringing his attention back to the cookie in his hand.

Why was Keith even here? Seriously, what were Pidge and Hunk thinking? The previous encounters with Keith that very well could have led to fist fights each time were all great reasons for why they should not have invited Keith over. His roommates were the two dumbest smart people he knew. Besides, Pidge had Hunk to fangirl over Voltron with so she definitely did not need Keith. This was the worst possible time to bring him around and if Lance didn’t think that moving from the couch would drain every fiber in his being then he would have gotten up and kicked Keith out himself.

“Keith, shouldn’t you I don’t know, be out ruining someone’s Friday night right now? Oh wait,” Lance frowned at him. “That’s exactly what you’re doing right now.”

“Why don’t you lay off?” Keith gritted his teeth. “I’ve barely said a word to you tonight.”

“A word was enough already.” Lance grumbled and Keith ignored him. He was certain that he could tolerate Keith more when he kept his mouth closed.

The title menu replayed itself on a silent loop while Hunk and Pidge filled bowls of popcorn and Keith awkwardly helped by putting cookies on a plate. Lance looked at them each momentarily while they finished prepping the snacks and he ate cookies on auto-pilot.   

They each eventually took a seat somewhere in the living room between the two couches and Keith ended up on the opposite end of the couch that Lance was sitting on. Lance wasn’t happy about it but his energy directed at Keith was starting to run low. He scooted himself closer to his own edge of the couch and rested his elbow on its arm. Energy used for Keith needed to be saved for a later time, is what he told himself.

The movie started and Lance at least liked it so far. It started out with action and loud bombing noises followed by the entrance of a huge multicolored robot that totally kicked ass. Thankfully it started out with that before going into the nitty gritty and boring explanation scenes. Lance was already tired and on the verge of being in a bad mood. A crappy movie would not have helped out in the slightest.

The plot appeared to be about a group of kids getting sucked into a space adventure that involved saving the entire galaxy. The action scenes were intense and Lance even found it difficult to take his eyes off of the screen during them, but once they settled down he couldn’t help falling back into his own world. This happened every single time something lost his attention.

The most agonizing thoughts struck him harder the more he sat on the ideas. He really needed to get out of this depressive mood. He was actually depressing himself with how depressing he was being and that barely made any sense to him. It wasn’t like he asked for a breakup or to have a sudden revelation about himself that wasn’t much to his liking. Distractions were the only thing keeping him together now. At this point, he’d try anything to get back on his own two feet.  

The first movie ended on a high note although it didn’t really wrap up the story. The group on the screen along with new comrades took down a major threat but not the bigger and badder boss. Lance was grateful that a sequel was up next on the watch list.

“We need more snacks!” Hunk jumped out of his seat on the other couch, carrying two bowls to the kitchen.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Pidge got up from her armchair and brushed some crumbs off of her shirt.

Pidge refilled the cookie tray first and left to take a bathroom break. Hunk was still in the kitchen making more popcorn, leaving just Keith and Lance in the living room.

“If you need to use the bathroom, there’s another one in my room.” Lance lazily pointed at his bedroom towards the left side of the living room. He didn’t bother looking at Keith, he didn’t even want to offer the bathroom to him in the first place. He was just too nice.

“No thanks.” Keith replied, side-eyeing him momentarily before looking back at the screen that replayed the same battle sequence and music on the main menu.

Lance clicked his tongue. Keith honestly and truly made him mad. He just had this “too good for you” attitude all the time and it irritated the crap out of Lance.

“Piss your pants for all I care.” Lance mumbled under his breath. He buried his elbow into the arm of the couch again and pressed his cheek against the palm of his hand.

“What did you say?” That must have gotten Keith’s attention. “God forbid I just don’t have to use the bathroom.” Keith gaped at Lance like he was an idiot. Lance glowered back at him. He hated more than anything when people looked at him like he was dumb.

“Whatever,” Lance huffed. He didn’t care right now anyway. “I was just offering.”

Keith remained silent at first and eventually cleared his throat quietly.

“Sorry,” Keith was looking away from the TV and even further away from Lance. “Thanks for offering. I just don’t need to go.”

“Sure thing.” Lance said quieter than he knew his voice to ever be. His eyes found their way to Keith for only a second before looking away. Keith’s face was a little on the crimson side. Was he nervous? Lance didn’t mean to make it that uncomfortable. Well, maybe he did, but some form of regret was starting to hit him now.

An apology though? From Keith? That was a first. Maybe this was a fake Keith. It had to be. Lance has known maybe a couple hours of good Keith and everything after that was pure evil.

Regardless, some of the tension did subside, at least that’s how Lance felt. When Keith was being quiet and bashful even, Lance just couldn’t hate him nearly as much as he’d like to, no matter how many times he chanted the word “evil” in his head.

Finally, Pidge and Hunk each returned to the couch and Lance appreciated the interruption of his thoughts on Keith more than they could ever know.

They began the second movie. This one didn’t start out with the same kind of action packed intro that the first one did but it was obvious that something was about to go down and it was going to happen fast. Lance was actually in tune with this one way more than he was with the first. Some kind of relief wiped over him in between the movies and his chest felt just a bit lighter than before.

During one of the major battles, Lance couldn’t help but notice Keith besides him again. His eyes were practically sparkling as he followed robot lions zipping from one edge of space to another. Lance could have sworn his jaw would drop at any moment. He must have really liked this movie. Seeing Keith make a face like that caught Lance off guard and he suddenly remembered that his heart could beat faster than he’s currently used to.

“ _Look at him acting like a cute fucking nerd when he’s actually evil._ ” Lance thought and then almost punched himself. He hadn’t thought Keith was cute in the slightest since they first met and even then he wanted to punch himself.

It was rare, but Lance did have moments when he didn’t really hate Keith. Sometimes it was when they happened to have class together and he’d see Keith doodle in his notebook instead of paying attention, sometimes it was when he saw Keith grinning at some book Lance had never heard of before. Now it was seeing Keith stare excitedly at a movie about a giant robot kicking butt.

Keith eventually must have noticed him staring and raised an eyebrow at Lance. Lance stuck out his tongue and turned away. Stupid Keith, he really ruined moments like this for himself.

 

“Which lion is your favorite Keith?” Pidge asked after a major fight finished.

“The red one for sure.” Keith looked at Pidge excitedly. He didn’t look so nervous anymore and his emo demeanor even seemed to have vanished. Lance hadn’t seen him talk about anything with that much facial expression in a long time

Lance was, for no real reason, offended by this comment though. “You’ve got to be kidding me right?”

“No, I’m not.” Keith sternly replied. His smiled flattened and Lance felt a twinge of regret from that but he couldn’t go back now.

“That lion has nothing on the blue one!” Lance yelled and surprised even himself with hearing his own excited voice again.

This time Keith’s jaw did drop. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, the blue lion was all like ‘ZAP ZAP POW POW’ and then the red lion was like “‘pew…pew..pew…’”

“What? No way it wasn’t!” Keith growled. He was probably seconds away from getting up and physically fighting Lance over this. “The red lion is a major component to the team even without strong gun power, so is the blue lion. They both are! The red one just focuses on other things like its maneuvering skills.”

The hype in Keith’s voice was way too much and Lance almost wanted to laugh. He didn’t want to have this argument anymore. He didn’t even feel upset by seeing Keith at this point and he looked way too passionate about the movie for Lance to win anyway. Lance honest to god did not care about which lion was better, he just wanted a reaction from Keith to be directed at him.

“Fine, whatever,” Lance shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth. “I guess the red lion isn’t so bad.”

Lance ignored the questionable expressions being tossed between Keith, Pidge, and Hunk. Even he could surrender if he wanted to. Either way, if Hunk and Pidge brought over someone they knew Lance despised then they must have had a good reason to and the least he could do was go along with it, because he’s a good friend to them.

 

By the end of the second movie Lance was dumbstruck.

“What the hell was that ending? It didn’t even make sense and how did they end up on _that_ planet?” Lance threw exasperated glances at Pidge, Hunk, and even Keith.

“It all makes sense in the end, just not right now.” Pidge responded to Lance while picking up a few spilled popcorn kernels.

“What do you mean not right now? I don’t see how that could ever make sense. And who the hell was that dude at the end?” Cliffhangers were not okay with Lance in the slightest. He usually refused to even watch shows until the entire series was finished. The one exception he made for that was with comic books but movies were not an exception and if he were in any right mind when Pidge offered to have movie night he would have asked her if it had an ending or not yet.

“You’d know if you read the book.” Pidge said.

“Well I didn’t so you guys have to tell me,” Lance pouted and folded his arms. “You guys know I don’t like being left in the dark after a cliffhanger.”

“No way am I spoiling it for you drama queen, go see the next movie.” Pidge frowned at him and got up to throw away lingering trash.

Lance reached out to grab Pidge’s arm but missed by a long shot. “What next movie? There’s another one? Why aren’t we watching it?”

“It comes out tomorrow actually.” Hunk took over the conversation for Pidge.

“Seriously? Take me to see it!” Lance was practically begging his friends, who responded with not even an eighth of the energy that he was exhausting.

“I can’t,” Hunk shook his head. “I have a physics exam Monday so I’ll be studying all weekend.”

The disappointment was apparent on Lance’s face but he had another option. “What about you, Pidge?”

“Idiot, I’m in the same class as Hunk so I have the same exam to study for.” She called out to him from the kitchen.

The tears were visibly swelling in Lance’s eyes now. He could feel his lips starting to tremble.

“Is the exam that important?” Lance tried to give them his best puppy dog eyes.

Pidge and Hunk both turned to him with a firm expression that Lance recognized all too well.

“Yes. It is.” They said simultaneously. Lance could tell that not even his puppy dog eyes could win him this one.

He had been so numb the last few days that this sudden mixture between excitement and disappointment was hitting way too hard. He really felt like shedding a few tears.

“Um, Lance?” Keith interrupted Lance’s moment of unhappiness, reminding him that Keith was still there.

“Huh? Don’t tell me you want to take me?” Lance joked. He saw Keith audibly sigh.

“Tomorrow is opening day and I won two tickets to see it so I figured maybe you’d want to…on me?” Keith did something with his mouth that almost looked like a smile and maybe it was but Lance couldn’t really tell.

Lance cradled his chin for a moment. What was he supposed to do? Just go to the movies with Keith? He expected to go on plenty of dates post breakup to pick himself up. Or at least that was his plan until he psyched himself out of dating, but either way, going to the movies with Keith of all people was not what he meant by getting back out there in the first place.

Well, not everything had to be a date, he reminded himself. Friends go out. Except Keith wasn’t really a friend, he wasn’t anything to Lance. Even so, Lance’s heart was doing this stupid thing and silently urging him to go. He didn’t know what it was but the idea of hanging out with Keith was kind of exciting to him. It reminded him of when they met, the good portion of it at least.

What the hell? Lance had nothing to lose here. Like it or not, he actually felt some sort of emotion right now whether good or bad and either one was better than not feeling anything at all. He needed to see the next movie as soon as possible anyway.

“Sure, I’ll go. But only because I don’t have to pay for a ticket and I’m dying to know what happens, not to hang out with you,” Lance folded his arms and frowned at Keith. He was having a hard time acting annoyed around Keith right now, especially when Keith just looked back at him with honest confusion and a lingering sense of hurt. Lance held his breath momentarily. He could stifle the rude comments for a few moments. “How did you win tickets anyway?”

“I won them from a radio contest. They were asking questions about the author and I knew the answers so I called in and won.” Keith replied. He looked so pure and proud of himself in that moment. Who actually listened to the radio? Keith did apparently.

“Wow, you really are a nerd. Who would have guessed?” Lance snorted. He felt a strong urge to clamp a hand over his mouth now every time he made Keith’s expression turn from happy to upset.

Lance noticed that Pidge and Hunk looked impressed and Keith didn’t say a word back. If Lance was going to go along with this, he’d try his best to not make insulting jabs every second but he had to do something to cover up the embarrassment when Keith looked at him so innocently and made it really hard for him to forget how hard he fell for Keith to begin with.                                                       

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance is emotional and confused. That's okay. We've all been there Lance. 
> 
> Talk to me about Klance or anything else really via my Tumblr:[rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the comments/kudos! I appreciate them and I'll start replying this time around. I just usually get so overly nervous ahh

Keith did it now. He asked Lance on a date. He supposed it wasn’t really a date, and to Lance it wasn’t even a hangout, but he asked Lance to go out somewhere and that’s what mattered.

“So um, the tickets are good for the entire day tomorrow,” Keith pulled out his phone to look up movie times. He couldn’t bear to look Lance dead in the eyes right now.  He tried his best to stay composed, even out his breathing, and not sound too enthusiastic over something so fruitless. His hands were shaking slightly while his fingers pattered against his phone screen. He hoped more than anything that Lance didn’t notice. “What time is good for you?”

“I sleep in late on the weekends but any time after one should be good.” Lance stretched out his arms and yawned. Keith finally looked at Lance when his eyes closed. The deep bags under Lance’s eyes didn’t do much to persuade Keith in not thinking that Lance was the most attractive person on this planet. He had long eyelashes, a small nose, and soft lips. At least, Keith imagined them to be so.

The restlessness that swelled inside of Keith eased off as he watched Lance’s lax movements. If Lance could be calm about this right now then maybe it wouldn’t turn out bad.

“Alright then,” Keith confirmed, much more relaxed now. “There is a showing at 1:45 at the theater on 5th avenue. Is that good?”

“Sure,” Lance grumbled, half falling asleep now. “I’ll meet you there at 11:45.”

“Doofus. I said 1:45. You just said you sleep in late.” Keith was so used to calling Lance some petty name or another but he didn’t feel any real annoyance behind it this time. Even Lance responding to him within the last five minutes didn’t whole-heartedly sound malicious. The sleep deprivation could have a lot to do with that though.

“Oh right. Okay.” Lance was fast asleep now. It amazed Keith as to how fast Lance just fell asleep, but if Keith looked as tired as Lance did he’d probably do the same thing.

“We’ll make sure he’s there on time.” Pidge said. She gave Lance a soft smile.

 Keith didn’t know she was capable of looking at him without even a twinge of irritation.

He stood up and took another glance at Lance. At least he looked like he might sleep tonight and that was a good thing if all else fails, even if that sleep sloppily takes place on the couch.

Pidge and Hunk got up to walk Keith to the door.

“Thanks for inviting me.” Keith said at the doorway. He looked behind them at Lance who was passed out on the couch. Seeing Lance asleep, not blabbering about nonsense, was a pretty calming sight.

 Hunk suddenly jumped, startling Keith, and ran into the kitchen to grab a baggie before stuffing several cookies into it.

“Thanks for coming. We didn’t entirely think you’d agree to any of this,” Hunk handed Keith the baggie and opened the door for him. “We really owe you one.”

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t do anything but I hope whatever you guys are hoping for will happen,” Keith glanced behind Pidge and Hunk at Lance again, still snoozing on the couch. “By the way, do you guys know why Lance hates me so much?”

Pidge and Hunk shared questioning looks and shrugged.

“Not sure,” Hunk began. “I always thought it was some kind of ancient rivalry.”

“Yeah,” Pidge added. “Lance just walks around mumbling about the pretentious asshole with the stupid mullet after you guys fight but then he never follows up and usually just drops it later.”

“Weird…”

“What’s weird is that even you don’t know why Lance hates you,” Pidge shrugged. “Anyway, I hope you guys can just resolve it after all of this because hot-headed Lance is only good when it’s in comparison to sad Lance.”

“Yeah I hope it’ll get resolved too.” Keith agreed. Lance didn’t have to like him back, let alone be his friend, but Keith at least didn’t want Lance to go on hating him forever.

“If it helps any, I think you’re a good guy and I think Lance will too.” Hunk added, probably noticing the all too obvious frown on Keith’s face.

“Thanks,” Keith gave a small smile. “See you guys around.”

 

When Keith got home he stood in the doorway of his apartment trying to gather his thoughts. His body felt hot and he couldn’t so much as move due to shock.

When he finally got ready for bed and tucked himself under the sheets, he started to play through scenarios in his head. Would he and Lance just argue the entire time? Would fists come into play if they aren’t in school? Would Lance calm down? Would he explain what the hell his problem was?

That night, Keith couldn’t sleep. He usually spent a lot of time thinking about things he shouldn’t but after a while they’d settle down and he’d eventually fall asleep. This time though, he just couldn’t stop worrying. What if things don’t change with Lance? Was he going to crush on a guy who hates him for no reason forever? He didn’t want to be the guy known only to provoke Lance. That was the last thing he wanted to be.

Keith tried to practice not thinking about Lance in that moment but the efforts were useless. His efforts to stop thinking at night were always useless. He took deep breaths to ease his rapid heartbeat and let his mind drift on to other things as often as possible. Like outer space. They say that just imagining the vastness of space can help some people sleep and Keith believed it. This tactic didn’t always work but it cleared his mind enough to steady his breaths and give him an opportunity to drift away in slumber.

 

Tired was an understatement when Keith woke up at 12pm. He at least got some hours of sleep in because he woke up so late, on the downside, while he was asleep he ended up dreaming about meeting up with Lance and that was exhausting. By the end of the dream, Lance thought the movie was shit and deemed Keith a no-good loser who has bad tastes and an ugly mullet.

For some reason, the mullet thing got to Keith the most. Pidge shouldn’t have opened her mouth about that.

Keith shook it off with breakfast and a protein shake. He’d take on today no matter what the likely outcome was. It was all he could do at this point and if Lance already hates him, what was there to lose?

 

The theater was definitely busier today than usual because of the weekend and movie release day. Idle chatter about Voltron amongst other movies were flowing through the wind. If Keith was maybe 60% more sociable, he’d definitely jump into one of many theory conversations that he was listening in on. Instead, he figured it would be good to get in line as soon as he arrived to exchange the passes for tickets. He was 30 minutes early and didn’t want to rely on Lance to get there with enough time to find a good seat.

Keith took out his phone to text Hunk and confirm Lance’s arrival. He almost pressed send when he saw the man in question walking towards him.

He didn’t bother waving when he made eye contact with Lance. He didn’t want to look dumb and acting natural apparently wasn’t something his brain could fathom.

“Here’s your ticket.” He handed the stub to Lance and tried to avoid thinking about how good Lance looked in even just a light blue hoodie and jeans.

“Good afternoon to you too,” Lance took the ticket and smiled proudly. “You like the color of my hoodie? It matches best lion.”

“The blue lion is not the best lion,” Keith frowned at Lance even though on the inside he could have died because this is the first time in a long time that Lance smiled in his general direction. “There is no ‘best lion’.”

Lance looked at him skeptically. “You say that but you’re also wearing a bright red long sleeve and I don’t know, I just think that’s supposed to imply favoritism of some sort.”

“This…was a coincidence.”

“You’re lying, look at your face!” Lance pointed a finger at Keith like he regularily does when he accuses him of something or another. “You love the red lion and you know it!”

“Fine! I do love the red lion,” Keith shooed away Lance’s jabbing finger. “But I love the other ones too.”

“It’s okay to have wrong opinions my man. Just embrace them as who you are.”

Keith gaped at him. Maybe sometimes he did hate Lance. “I can’t have wrong opinions. That’s why they’re opinions.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance waved off his comment. “Just keep repeating that to yourself during the movie and maybe you’ll feel better about it.”

“I don’t need to—forget it. Let’s go inside.” Keith gave up. Trying to argue with Lance was always a losing battle yet he still wanted to so badly.

 

“You want some popcorn?” Lance asked as they were passing by the concession stand.

“I don’t have much money for movie theater popcorn so I was going to pass on it.”

“I’ll pay. You got us the movie tickets so it’s the least I can do.”

Keith was surprised. Lance? Being nice? To him?

“I didn’t buy the tickets though. I won them.”

“I’m sure you’re fun at parties,” Lance mumbled. He fished out a wallet from his pocket and counted through the paper money. “Just let me buy us popcorn. I’ll get a big one and we can share. Oh, and soda! I don’t mean we’ll share the soda, I’ll get separate sodas. Uh, what kind of soda do you like anyway?”

Keith tried to stifle a laugh. He wasn’t used to hearing nice Lance blabber away like this.

“I like Cola.”

“Okay, cool. Let’s go find seats and then I’ll make a run for the concession stand.”

“Alright.”

 

Once Lance and Keith fitted themselves in a good spot, Lance dashed for the concession stand. This was great because now Keith could take a moment to just calm down.

This wasn’t going nearly as atrociously as dream Keith thought it would. Lance doesn’t look dead inside, he’s making rude quips while smiling, and he’s being unnaturally considerate. Maybe he really needed to thank Hunk and Pidge for the greatest bad idea on the planet.

Lance returned just in time for the movie previews, which he chose to point out were his favorite part of any movie theater experience. Keith thought that was a silly thing to say.

 

The movie was awesome so far and actually everything Keith could have hoped for in an adaptation but he was certain he would have to watch this again to really enjoy it. Alone.

Having Lance watch his favorite series unfold before him was great, except that Keith was very much distracted by Lance’s every movement and grand facial expression and this problem completely drew him away from the screen a few times too many.

He needed to focus. On the movie, not Lance. He thought stuffing his face might distract him. Keith reached for the bag of popcorn and flinched when he felt his fingers brush against Lance’s.

“Sorry,” Keith spat out in a voice so quiet that Lance probably didn’t hear him. Even if Lance didn’t hear Keith, he looked down at the bag shortly before eying the screen again, grabbing a handful of popcorn, and shoving it in his mouth carelessly.

“I love movie popcorn.” Lance said without taking his eyes off of the screen.

“Me too.” Keith muttered even though he withdrew his hand and waited 20 minutes before trying again.

 

“Okay dude. You’re right. Everything makes sense now.” Lance sighed as they exited the theater and headed towards the lobby.

“I told you!” Keith loved this movie even if he wasn’t paying attention the entire time. It really followed the book a lot more than he thought it would and wrapped up the series perfectly. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to hold back on spoiling everything for you last night.”

Lance looked at Keith and laughed. “It was good. I’ll give it that, and the red lion wasn’t so bad in this one. Really had my perspective changed about her this time around. Blue is still my favorite though.”

“That’s fine,” Keith smiled. “I’m just glad you enjoyed it.”

Lance looked away from Keith and started to survey the area. Keith thought that maybe his face looked stupid when he made that last comment.

“Holy crap,” Lance looked in shock through the wide windows of the theater lobby. “It’s raining!”

Keith followed his gaze. It was definitely raining, but did Lance really need to yell about it as if he’s never seen rain before? Lance’s eyes lit up and Keith couldn’t tell if it was with excitement or fear of the rain. The ways his mouth hung open and his lips curled upwards, felt like an indication of excitement.

“Do you like the rain?” Keith asked.

“Do I like it?” Lance drew his eyes away from the window and let them fall on Keith. “I love the rain.”

Keith’s heart fluttered. Lance was way too cute for this and Keith was falling way too hard. He never cared for the rain, hell, he hated it most of the time because riding his bike in it sucked, but if it made Lance look as content as he did in this moment, it might just become his new favorite type of weather.

“I can tell.” Keith chuckled which visibly caught Lance by surprise. Keith stifled it quickly because even he knew that laughing was really out of character and probably just made him look weird.

Lance was staring at him. Keith looked away a long time ago and busied his eyes with the rain behind Lance, but he could definitely feel Lance staring.

“Did you just laugh?” Lance’s expression went from serious to entertained as he eyed Keith.

Did Lance have to pick at him for every little thing?

“Yeah, maybe I did.” The annoyance he felt towards Lance helped settle down his fleeting heart at least. He made an attempt to look at Lance in a way that said “I dare you to laugh at me again” but that attempt went out the window when he finally looked at Lance directly and saw a strange sort of fondness coming from his expression. Lance never looked at him like that, at least not recently.

“Good,” Lance smiled. “You should laugh more often.”

Keith opened his mouth to say something. Something taunting, something to help relieve the flush he felt in his cheeks, anything to save him from getting swept up by Lance yet again.

He scoffed. Real nice Keith.

“Are you hungry?” He asked, changing the subject. He fiddled with his sleeves. “I could go for a bite to eat.”

“I am,” Lance started and then directed his attention back to the rain. “I like the rain, but I don’t like going into the rain without preparing myself.” He laughed nervously.

What was Lance’s deal? Was he worried his hair would get tousled in the rain? As if it was neat to begin with. Keith shook his head and reached into the backpack he brought with him.

“Here,” He pulled out an umbrella and extended it to Lance. “I knew it was supposed to rain so I packed this.”

Lance stared at him momentarily. Keith was really starting to think that Lance had an actual staring problem and that made him terribly uncomfortable.

“So, you want me to use an umbrella while you walk around in the rain?” Lance’s gaze went from the umbrella to Keith.

“Yeah. I don’t really care if I’m in the rain. It’s not exactly pouring.”

“No, can do.” Lance shook his head and pushed the umbrella back towards Keith.

“Why not?”

“I’m a gentlemen.”

Keith snorted. “You are most definitely, _not_ a gentlemen.”

“Am too!” Lance exclaimed.

“You are not,” Keith deadpanned. “Who cares anyway? Just take the umbrella.” He held it out to Lance again.

“I said no.” Lance crossed his arms and huffed.

“Then what are you going to do, Lance? The rain is picking up and if we don’t go now, we’ll both get caught in it.”

“Then we’ll stay in here.”

“We will not stay in here,” Keith rubbed a hand over his face. When he looked outside, he saw people running through the rain and some people taking their time under umbrellas. Amongst those, he saw a few couples sharing an umbrella. The thought gave him goosebumps, but did he have any other options?

He glanced at Lance again who still stood there with arms crossed and an unfaltering look of determination. The answer was no. If he wanted to eat, he had no other options.

“Okay fine,” Keith said finally. “We could—we could share the umbrella and compromise that way.”

Lance blinked at him. Keith knew it was an embarrassing idea, more embarrassing since he acted on it but he had to suggest something.

“Alright,” Lance eased his stance, although he sighed. “But on one condition.”

Keith arched an eyebrow. Lance made everything so complicated.

“What?”

“I get to hold the umbrella.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Why? Is that another “gentlemen” thing of yours?”

“No,” Lance scowled. “You’re just kind of short and I’m pretty sure if you hold it, the wiring inside the umbrella will constantly hit my head. Doesn’t sound too enticing.”

Arguing that one wouldn’t do him any good. Lance was a lot taller than him and had a fair enough point.

“Alright,” He handed the umbrella to Lance one last time. “Take it.”

“Going down without a fight Kogane? I like it,” Lance took the umbrella. “I know a café around here that has nice lunch specials. We could go there?”

“Fine,” Keith rubbed his forehead. Lance near just gave him a headache. “Lead the way.”

Lance chuckled and pushed on the lobby doors. “After you.” He smirked. Keith groaned because Lance was definitely doing this on purpose, being flirty in a taunting way was apparently his specialty.

The umbrella popped open and suddenly reminded Keith how small his umbrella actually was. It’s not like it was made for two, it was made for him and only him. That’s at least the intention he had when he bought it.

“What are you just standing there for? Get under here.” Lance tugged on Keith’s shirt.

Reluctantly, Keith moved under the umbrella, as far away from Lance as possible, which granted, wasn’t very far but at least he wasn’t pressed up against him.

“Look Keith, I know you hate me but I’m not going to bite,” Lance sighed and continued walking. “This was your idea and now you’re half getting drenched.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re soaked.”

“I’m _half_ soaked.”

“Well, now I’m going to be half soaked.” Lance tilted the umbrella more over Keith, leaving his right half exposed.

“You’re the one who’s afraid of getting wet. Take it back.” Keith turned to look at Lance.

“This is your fault,” Lance frowned. “You just couldn’t bear to stand close to me.”

Keith knew he was just being an ass, but the face Lance made sent a surge of guilt through him for really no reason.

“You’re such a kid.” Keith groaned and scooted in closer to Lance. Their arms touched and he took a moment to make sure that such an embarrassing effort actually benefited the cause.

It did. Lance was no longer exposed to the rain, neither was he, and Lance was smiling.

These smiles had the ability to kill him, Keith thought. Lance was unbearable in the most irritating, frustrating, and adorable ways. Not that he could ever admit the last part out loud.

 

“This place is actually really nice.” Keith surveyed the café that Lance led him to. The sandwich in his hand was great, the people looked friendly, and he wasn’t one to care for décor, but even he had to say it left him feeling good.

The walls had frames hung up with artwork of famous book covers and illustrious quotes from popular authors. The lighting was low, but the large glass windows at the store front did a great job in brightening up the room, even if it was raining cats and dogs outside. It was somewhere to go if you wanted to fall in love with a good book. Keith actually kind of loved this place. He actually kind of loved Lance for bringing him, amongst other things.

“Isn’t it? I used to come here with my ex a lot,” Lance fondly looked around the café and chuckled. “She used to drag me to _a lot_ of cafes.”

“Doesn’t really seem like your kind of scene.”

“I know right? That’s what I told her,” Lance’s lips curled up and honestly this place did suit Lance. It made him look more gorgeous than anything Keith has ever seen.  


“But I oddly feel so comfortable here. Even without her around,” He scratched the back of his head and laughed. “I was actually kind of scared to come back here alone. I’m glad we could go.”

Keith shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Even if he was anxious, if Lance felt glad, then he did too.

“How are you anyway? Um, with the breakup?” Keith asked.

Lance looked to his right and pursed his lips. That must have been his thinking face.

“I haven’t actually felt so bad about it lately. If I’m being honest,” Lance looked at Keith with a sheepish smile. “I thought that you coming over last night would make me feel a lot more like crap, but it didn’t. You didn’t.”

Keith’s hope was a dangerous, dangerous thing right now. After all the practicing and negative thinking, he thought that he could get away with not being too hopeful that things could change between him and Lance after so long. The last 24 hours has proved him completely wrong, however.

Lance continued. “And to think, I’m supposed to hate your guts. I did too, but I just can’t find the will to do it now and it’s not because I’m sad. I’ve thought about that. I guess I just don’t feel it anymore.” He shrugged.

 

 

“Speaking of,” Keith put down the sandwich. “Why did you hate me? I talk a lot of shit to you now but for the first few hours that I knew you, we didn’t argue at all, then suddenly you hated me.” Keith was fidgeting in his seat and Lance was looking back at him like he was an idiot. Keith absolutely did not like talking about things, but this had to be put out there.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what you said to me that day.” And there was the same overused line again. Lance narrowed his eyes and leaned forward against the table.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Seriously? The whole ‘Do you really need this?’ comment?” Lance repeated Keith’s words with a strong sense of sarcasm entwined in them.

“I remember that,” Keith definitely remembered his accidental syntax error. “What about it?”

“What about it? You were basically asking me if I needed an honors math book because you assumed I wouldn’t be in an honors class!”

Keith almost couldn’t muster up a response. This is what Lance was so mad about. Lance thought that he was making fun of him?

“You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s not what I meant at all,” He flipped his hands so his palms faced the ceiling as if he was expecting an explanation to fall into them. “I jumbled up my wording and I meant to say ‘Don’t you really need this?’. It came out wrong and I felt so stupid afterwards, but I didn’t think you’d take it like that at all.”

Lance’s eyes widened and he looked borderline flustered.

“Those two sentences sound completely different.” Lance said through gritted teeth, stressing the last few words in his sentence.

“I know now! I really didn’t think anything of it then. I thought whatever message you got in that moment pissed you off and you had to go. Then class came around and you weren’t hesitant at all about your feelings towards me so I figured I must have did something, but I had no idea what it was.” Keith took a deep breath.  Did Lance run out of air like this when he was continuously talking all the time?

“Wow. We probably could have been great friends if you didn’t mess that up,” Lance took a sip of his coffee and Keith ran a hand down his face.

“Really, I messed up? I didn’t think you were an idiot back then but I’m seriously starting to reconsider that.”

Lance sighed. “To think I was just about to hit on you that day too.”

Keith froze. “You what?”

“Don’t worry. I’m over it. You grew up to be so feisty,” Lance stuck out his tongue and made a face like he tasted something repulsive. “You were so nice that day and it was kind of cute.”

“Didn’t you have a girlfriend?” Keith took another bite of his sandwich in a desperate attempt to hide his face from Lance. He decided he would not take those words to heart, though his decision betrayed him when his heart started to beat much faster now.

“Her and I weren’t dating then,” Lance put his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his palm. “Unless you’re asking if I had a girlfriend after I just said I was going to hit on you, a dude. In that case, for the record, I swing both ways.”

Keith could hardly swallow his food. “I see.”

“Are you weirded out by that?” Lance sat up straight, his eyebrows drawing together. “I’m sorry man, don’t take it seriously. Also I’m sorry for being such a jackass to you all this time. I just thought you were undermining me and I didn’t like that.”

“It’s cool. Both things that you said are cool.” Keith is an idiot and maybe if he just sips on his soda for the rest of his time with Lance then he’ll avoid saying anything else that’s dumb.

“Nice,” Lance hummed.

“So are we good now?” Keith asked. Half expecting a rejection of his peace offering. He couldn’t help not to.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Lance took a sip of his drink.

Keith watched the rain pour outside. He felt like it was washing away all of his troubles. Lance, the rain, the miscommunication, all of it suddenly felt so relieving.

“Looks like we’re stuck in here for a while.” Lance laughed as he looked outside.

“Guess so.” Keith didn’t mind. Of course he didn’t mind. Lance was charming when he laughed coolly. If anyone should laugh more often, it was Lance.

“We have years to catch up on so it’s okay.”

“Yeah, it’s okay.” Keith let himself feel happy about at least this. Basic human interaction was good. It was a step.

They talked for what felt like hours until the rain finally decided to let up. They shared stories and reminded each other of what they were going to school for and what they wanted out of it. Lance eventually caught Keith up on the recent breakup which finally brought along a conversation suited for the moody weather.

“So that’s why I’m giving up on dating.” Lance sighed.

This must have been where the sadness was coming from. Lance didn’t seem distressed while talking about his ex but talking about himself looked like torture.

“Lance I don’t think that you’re the problem,” Keith said in his best attempt to sound reassuring. It wasn’t that he was actually apathetic, he just looked and sounded like it. Trying to change that would just look creepy. “You’ve had a stroke of bad luck, but I doubt it’s because of you as a person.”

“It just feels that way,” Lance looked down at the table solemnly. “After every breakup there’s always the conversation about how _I_ did something wrong. The people I’ve dated have all been great and I’m just…not so great.”

Lance’s shallow voice was breaking Keith’s heart. He almost couldn’t believe that the overly confident and spontaneous Lance really thought that he was a problem. He wanted to tell Lance that he liked being with him and he enjoyed the quirks and excitable personality, even if he didn’t look like it.

He wanted to tell Lance that almost everything he did, snide remarks aside, sent a chill down Keith’s spine. That when Lance got hyper and silly from drinking too much coffee today, Keith loved every second of it, even when Lance was noisy and people started to stare. He even enjoyed some of the times when he and Lance apparently hated each other. Maybe not the direction confrontations, but the moments when he’d see Lance pouting during lecture, or yelling embarrassing comments to his friends in between classes, or laughing at things that weren’t even funny to most people.

“Lance look,” Keith frowned at Lance until he lifted his head to make eye contact. “Whether a relationship ends bad or never ever goes sour, what matters is that during it, you were happy, and if you get burnt, then at least you were electrified.”

Lance blinked at him rapidly, as if he didn’t expect actual words to make their way out of Keith’s mouth.

Lance wasn’t replying and Keith felt like a blabbering fool. Feelings aside, he couldn’t help trying to re-explain himself.

“What I’m trying to say is—”

“I should be happy while I can because it’s better than always being sad?” Lance cut him off without tearing his eyes away.

“Yeah,” Keith answered. Lance’s eyes were so blue, they were hard to look away from. He settled for sitting back against his seat, a sad effort to give him space away from Lance. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

Lance let out a small breath of air and grinned. “Maybe you’re right. Giving up on love didn’t really sit right with me anyway. I just really really love being in love, you know?”

The eye contact wouldn’t break and all Keith could do was nod. He didn’t know. If he was being completely honest, love hurt, he hated it and wished it would go away overnight. But Lance loves it and Lance doesn’t deserve to lose something he loves so much overnight like that. When Keith really thought about it, as he found himself completely consumed in thoughts about Lance, should anyone really ever just lose this feeling? Even through the pain, Keith can’t imagine a world in which he didn’t truly want to love Lance.

“Thanks Keith,” Lance closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. “You’re actually kind of intimidating when you talk, but in a good way. A helpful way.” He added. 

Something else was about to be said until Lance’s phone started to ring. It was to the tune of the animated Spiderman series, Keith noted.

“Hello?....Yeah…Soon I guess…Yeah I’ll pick that up…Alright. Bye.” Lance hung up the phone and put it back down.

He shook his head. “I guess I need to go, my friends said that they’re dying,” Lance added air quotes around the last word. “Can we hangout again though?” He asked, and Keith must have been imaging it because he was pretty certain that Lance’s face was red. It had to be the lightening now that the sun was out.

“I’d like that.” Keith wanted to keep his words to a minimum. This day was going much better than he anticipated. The entire situation was completely ludicrous but now Lance is acknowledging that they are hanging out and he’d like to do it again. Also Keith needed to repeat in his head that Lance can like men and even thought he was cute at one point in time. Now he’s apparently feisty but he didn’t have to be if Lance wasn’t.

“Awesome,” Lance scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Since you’re friends with Pidge and Hunk apparently, maybe I’ll see you around the apartment more often?”

“Probably.” Keith finally smiled back at Lance. Not a big smile but the smallest one that forced its way through while he was trying so hard to keep a straight face.

“Oh hey, what’s your phone number?” Lance lifted his phone from resting on the table.

Keith recited his number and asked Lance to text him so he could have his number too. This was the most unreal experience of Keith’s life and if he was sleeping, he’d much appreciate never waking up.

“Alright. Sent.” Lance put his phone down and within seconds Keith’s lit up. “I saved you as ‘Mullet’.”

Keith inhaled sharply. “It’s not a mullet.”

“Oh yes it is. I’d recognize a mullet anywhere.” Lance crossed his arms and made a breathy huff through nose.

“Oh no it’s not.” Keith argued back.

“It totally is!” Lance threw his hands up in the air. “You can’t be in denial about a haircut that you’re sporting!”

It was definitely Lance’s fault that he was feisty.

“I’d love to talk more about your apparent blindness but my friends really are in need of study pick me ups so we’ll have to end this.”

“Great. I was getting ready to cut my hair right here and now just to shut you up.”

“Oh god, don’t ever do that!” Lance’s voice was shrill. He looked more offended by that than anything Keith’s ever said to him before. “I mean that would just be…not you, you know? Just promise me you won’t do that and I’ll lose the word “mullet” from my vocabulary.”

Keith didn’t understand why Lance took that so seriously. There’s no way in hell he’d cut his hair because of Lance’s nonsensical comments.

“Ohh I see,” Keith smirked. “You like longer hair don’t you?”

“Huh? No way!” So even Lance could blush, Keith thought. He wasn’t mistaken this time. “That’s not the point. The point is that you’d look way too different so just don’t do it,” Lance shook his head aggressively and frowned at Keith. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

Lance didn’t make much more eye contact as he threw away his trash and darted outside of cafe. Keith couldn’t tell if he was flustered, angry, or an unhealthy combination of both. Regardless, this day was more than he could have asked for.

He placed a hand over his heart and felt its unsteady pace. Lance was going to ruin him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give him the ol' razzle dazzle Keith
> 
> Was a Taylor Swift song quoted in this chapter? You sure bet it was.  
> Seriously, "Dress" by Taylor Swift is a top tier Klance song. Check. It. Out. 
> 
> Tumblr: [rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a new chapter (i'm sorry Lance, you always get the short ones orz) in less than a week wow!

Lance trudged towards his apartment doorstep with a grocery bag in hand. He used his other hand to fan his face. Why did he feel so warm when he should be shivering from the wind? Keith’s comment about Lance liking long hair was the answer. He would be lying if he said that the blush Keith caused earlier isn’t sticking with him now. Being excitable and flirty was totally his thing, it just was and always will be. If anyone else flirts with him, he becomes a love struck disaster. That’s why he specialized in doing the flirting. If it were someone else, he’d probably die of embarrassment.

“Lance is that you?”

He grimaced while opening the door. The shallow, cracked voice emerging from the other side did not sound good.

“Uhh yeah?” Cautiously, he walked inside and saw Pidge’s lifeless body hanging off of the couch. An empty box of animal crackers laid tipped over on the ground next to Hunk. Lance had no clue where the voice came from because they both looked dead to him.

“How much have you guys studied?” Lance stepped over more food boxes and crushed an empty energy drink under his foot. He placed a new energy drink into each of their hands and watched them slowly rise from college’s depths of hell.

“We’re halfway done.” Pidge croaked and fell back onto the couch, scooting herself upright enough to drink from the can.

“Halfway? You have another half to go?” Lance was appalled by them first and their studies second. “I’m glad I didn’t need to take that course.”

“The next half will be lighter. Most of it can be done during Sunday Funday.” Pidge said in between guzzles of energy.

Lance sighed. Sunday Funday was Pidge and Hunks way of productively hanging out during the weekend. It was about four hours of torture for Lance, but he still went with them every week.

“Lance,” Hunk rolled over and smiled wearily at him. “You sound so much better. Did you enjoy the movie?”

Lance’s face dropped. “Why do you sound like you’re about to die?” He looked away from Hunk and brushed a strand of hair from his face. “I did have a good time. That reminds me, I need to thank Keith.” He dropped the bag of snacks on the ground between his roommates and headed to his room.

L 5:30pm [Yo Keithers, thx for the movie]

K 5:32pm [Keithers…?]

L 5:32pm [Its that or Mullet Boy Wonder]

K:5:33pm [That’s too long. And unnecessary]

K 5:33pm [Keith can’t be an option?]

L 5:34pm [Thought bout it. No.]

K 5:35pm [Really?]

L 5:35pm [Im a guy who likes nicknames]

L 5:35pm [Dont try to deprive me of who I am]

K 5:37pm [But Keithers?]

L 5:37pm [Keithy?]

K 5:37pm [That’s even worse]

L 5:38pm [Make up your mind >: ( ]

K 5:40pm [Fine. If I have to pick one stupid name over another then it would have to be Keithers]

L 5:41pm [:)]

L 5:43pm [So watcha doin tomorrow Keithers?]

K 5:48pm [Homework I guess]

L 5:48pm [Nerd]

K 5:48pm […Why?]

L 5:49pm [Do you wanna do hw together?]

L 5:49pm [Pidge and Hunk are having what they call “Sunday Funday”]

L 5:49pm [Spoiler: its not fun]

L 5:49pm [They do hw at the library]

L 5:50pm [and if youre doing hw anyway you should come]

K 5:52pm [What time?]

L 5:52pm [They usually start at 3]

L 5:52pm [pm]

K 5:53pm [You’re going too?]

L 5:54pm [Duh. I didnt invite you for their sakes]

K 5:54pm [I’ll be there]

K 5:54pm [At 3]

L 5:55pm [Great! Someone to finally talk to during Sunday Hellday]

K 5:55pm [Wouldn’t you be doing homework anyway?]

L 5:56pm [Yep. Of course. (: See ya tomorrow]

L 5:56pm [Keithers (: ]

K 5:58pm [bye lance]

Lance was feeling really good tonight. He didn’t want to immediately go to sleep or cry in the shower or listen to his “broken-heart” playlist. The more he thought about it the more he felt like actually doing something about this problem. When it came down to it why was he sad? Because he missed Allura? He had more fun with Pidge, Hunk and even Keith than he did with her. He couldn’t deny liking her though. She was smart, nice, and intense. A perfect 10 who was way out of his league.

Allura’s parting words were slowly starting to make sense. Her telling him that he’s a great guy but there’s other people out there for them wasn’t her way of saying the cliché “It’s not you, it’s me”, it was just the truth. They dated because Lance flirts with everything and she actually said yes. He thought he was the luckiest man alive but aside from him asking and her saying yes, what reason did they have to even go out to begin with?

Lance stared at the popcorn ceiling above him while he thought. He imagined pictures made from the ceiling's texture like he would do with clouds. He knew he wasn’t bad looking, she didn’t leave him for something so low like that; she was more respectful than that. She left because it made sense to. More sense than it made to stay together.

Allura aside, wasn’t he bad luck? He wasn’t meant to be in a relationship. The idea scared the crap out of him but he couldn’t let that end him. Even Keith said so and if he was getting advice from Keith it must have meant something. He loved love too much to talk himself out of it. Hopefully at least.

Lance smiled to himself. Maybe this was his chance to find the real love of his life. He almost wanted to thank Allura for the experience. Lance silently cursed the overwhelming string of negative emotions he had over the last week. His friends didn’t deserve that and frankly neither did he.

A wave of excitement overcame him. He needed to go out there and tell his friends that he was okay right now. Even if not entirely, he would be soon.

“Guys, I’m back!” Lance pushed open his bedroom door for the big reveal. Pidge and Hunk barely lifted their eyes from the papers scattered on the coffee table. He probably needed to tone down his dramatic.

“You didn’t leave.” Pidge drew her eyes up towards Lance.

“Not literally no but—”

“Oh come here Lance!” Hunk threw his arms open and Lance immediately dived into the hug. He absolutely loved affection.

When Lance got his fill, he side glanced Pidge and smiled mischievously. “Oh Pidge, do you want a hug?”

She adjusted her glasses and scooted backwards cautiously. “Not really.”

Lance pounced on Pidge for his hug, albeit a one sided hug.

“I didn’t miss this,” Pidge said, prying Lance away. “But I did miss you,” She smiled at him. “Glad to have you back Lance.” She smiled at him.

“Wonder what did it,” Lance sat in the middle of the study war zone. “Just last night I was completely out of it and now I feel like a whole new person.”

“Maybe it was Keith.” Hunk shrugged and Pidge shot him a quick glance.

“Keith huh…?” Lance rubbed his chin, considering the possibility. “He did give me some good advice and I don’t hate him anymore.”

“You don’t?” Hunk and Pidge both asked in amazement.

“Nah, everything was a misunderstanding. He still talks shit to me though but it doesn’t piss me off like it did before.” Truthfully, he kind of liked the back and forth banter between him and Keith. It was fun in a non-threatening kind of way this time.

“A misunderstanding?” Pidge repeated.

“I heard him wrong a couple of years ago and hated him ever since.”

“Wow, what an idiot.” Pidge deadpanned. Pidge wasn’t wrong, he really did approach that the wrong way but he couldn’t help that now.

“I’m surprised he was willing to hang out with you.” Hunk said. “You were kind of a jerk to him this entire time.”

Guilt took a direct plunge into Lance’s stomach. He would have hated a guy like himself if he were in Keith’s shoes. Keith was obviously made of 100% pure salt now and was seemingly nicer in the past but deep down he probably wasn’t a bad person at all, especially if he put up with Lance like that.

“Maybe Keith realizes that Lance is just an idiot,” Pidge shrugged. “Or maybe he just likes him.”

“You think Keith is into me?” Lance wiggled his eyebrows at Pidge.

“No doofus. I meant maybe he doesn’t hate your personality as much as you think, but I take that back. Your personality sucks.”

Lance frowned deeply at Pidge who groaned at the overused expression.

“Make up for it then,” Hunk ignored the bitterness between Lance and Pidge like he usually did. “Keith could be a good friend to have in your life.”

“Yeah,” Lance muttered. “He’s not all that bad.”

He wasn’t. Keith was in a way refreshing, at least in comparison to Lance’s days prior. Right now Keith was Pidge and Hunk’s friend so he couldn’t be that bad. Pidge and Hunk’s friend huh?

Lance watched his friends suspiciously. “Why did you guys even become Keith’s friend to begin with? I clearly didn’t like him.”

Hunk and Pidge looked at each other. They clearly had some kind of ulterior motive behind it.

Pidge gave him a delicate smile. “Promise you won’t get mad?”

“So it was a scheme.” Lance narrowed his eyes.

“Scheme is such an evil word.” She replied.

“Then what do you call it?”

“A well thought out plan of action.”

Hunk interrupted. “Lance, we asked Keith to come over because we thought that he could help excite you again, for a lack of better words.”

“Excite me?”

“Or just get you to talk again,” Hunk said. “You wouldn’t talk to us but when Keith came into the picture you suddenly had 1000 times more energy than before and we thought maybe that meant something.”

“And you told this to Keith?”

“Yep, we told him the whole reason behind the plan and he said yes,” Pidge seemed impressed while she shrugged. “Didn’t fully expect him to but he said yes.”

“Maybe Keith does like you.” Hunk laughed.

Lance wanted to laugh with him but he couldn’t. He felt like complete crap this entire past week. Pidge and Hunk were right, if anyone could get Lance wired up it was Keith. With that being said, Lance again, was a total jerk to Keith and this situation gave him the complete ability to knock Lance off his high horse for good. Keith could have gotten him back tenfold, but he didn’t.

The guilt was mixing with adoration. Lance knew the second feeling all too well. He was starting to like someone and for the first time he regretted it.

“Lance, why do you look so sad?” Hunk’s eyes were wide with panic.

Pidge shared the same expression as Hunk. “We really weren’t trying to hurt you Lance, we were—”

“It’s not that,” Lance’s lips quivered as he spoke. “I think I’m the one who likes Keith. Again.”

“Again?” Pidge repeated.

“When I first met him I had the biggest love at first sight crush on him and spent the first year here trying to burry that feeling with hatred, but now…”

“Now it’s resurfacing?’ Hunk asked.

Lance gave a small nod. He felt like crying.

“Is that a bad thing?” Pidge asked.

“Love is never a bad thing,” He sniffed. “But I’m scared of being hurt again. I don’t want to risk it.”

Hunk moved closer to rub Lance’s back. “If you don’t take any risks you’ll never know if you missed the love you meant to have.”

“Keith said something similar.” Lance sighed.

“The odds are in your favor Lance,” Pidge started. “Keith has to like you to some extent if he agreed to this entire fiasco.”

“I don’t know.” Lance looked down at his feet, something he was doing often lately.

“Find out then.” Hunk said, not stopping the soft gesture against Lance’s back.

“I can’t just go up to him and say I like him. It feels like we just met.”

“That never stopped you before.” Pidge chuckled.

Lance let out a soft laugh. She was right. He was always in a rush to start something new with someone new. He couldn’t deny that. This felt different though. It was fragile.

“I can’t lose him as a friend again already,” Lance bit his bottom lip. “Who knows, he might have just went along with it because he felt bad for me.”

“Don’t say that Lance,” Hunk said. “Look, when Keith left last night after you passed out on the couch, he asked us if we knew why you hated him. We had no answer and he seriously looked so distressed over that. You can’t fake a look like that. I would have sent him home with three dozen more cookies if I had them just to make myself feel better after that.”

“Really?” Lance looked up at Hunk.

“Yeah really,” Pidge said. “And I’m pretty sure he was standing outside of our apartment for at least five minutes before I ran into him while checking the mail. He was obviously nervous.”

“These are signs Lance!” Hunk exclaimed. He moved his hand, making Lance whimper from the loss of contact. “Even if we can’t tell exactly how he feels, it’s clear that he at least really wants to be your friend. So I say go with that, and then go from there.”

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Pidge nodded.

Lance groaned and tried his best to not grin too hard. His friends were the best. More than he deserved.

“That’s such an overused line.” He grinned at Pidge, unable to hide it after all.

“But it’s true.” She said.

“You’re right,” Lance took a deep breath. “Now, let’s say that Keith does actually want to be my friend and all and then I want to try and advance that, what if he doesn’t swing that way? I told him today that I was bi and he didn’t say anything.”

“You expect Keith Kogane to throw a coming out party for you and then join in?” Pidge laughed. “Yeah right.”

“Well I can’t just ask him.”

“You can,” Pidge argued. “But how about you bring him by again and let Hunk and I decide. You’re too in denial to judge right now. I’m sure I already know the answer judging by last night but a second assessment wouldn’t cause harm.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “I did invite him to Sunday Funday tomorrow.”

“Cool! We can talk about Voltron and Hunk and I can use this as an opportunity to see if he’s totally gay or not.”

“That was not the intention of me asking him.” Lance waived a finger at Pidge.

“Not your intention but maybe your subconscious’, or more rightfully known as my intention,” Pidge had a malicious grin on her face. “This will be fun. I may not be good at giving romantic advice or talking about it, but I can tell an obvious situation when I see one.”

“This is scary.” Hunk whispered towards Lance.

“I know,” The terror in Lance’s eyes was evident. It didn’t help that she looked completely sleep deprived and had bags under her eyes. He really needed to lend her some of his nighttime beauty products. “She’s crazy. It’s not even her plan, it’s that look in her eyes. You see that?” He scooted towards Hunk and pointed at Pidge. “Evil lurks there.”

Pidge snapped out of scheming. “I’m not evil. I just don’t want to have to sit here in the future and listen to you for hours on end while you contemplate Keith’s sexuality and his feelings towards you.”

“But that’s what friends are for!” Lance made a puppy dog for.

“Normal friends,” Pidge corrected. “Productive friends knockout the problem before it happens.”

Lance didn’t have anything to say about that. There wasn’t really anything wrong with ruining the emotional cycle if it helped him in the end.

“Okay fine, just don’t go outing me in the process of trying to understand Keith.”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be careful with my wording.” She waved off his comment and began looking back at her study material.

Lance narrowed his eyes at Pidge. “I know you Pidge. You say ‘yeah yeah’ and then you turn around and do exactly what I tell you not to do.”

She took in a sharp breath, refusing to pull her eyes away from her book. “I promise you Lance, I won’t tell Keith that you’re definitely thinking of banging him.”

Hunk laughed and Lance lit up bright red. “I’m not—”

Pidge and Hunk looked at him expectantly.

Lance coughed to clear his throat. “That’s not what goes through my head all the time. I’ve never even had—” Lance stopped himself, this conversation was over.

“Well I’m going to go do homework too. In my room though,” Lance stood up and tiptoed over the paperwork. “You guys ruined this place.”

“You act surprised every time even though we always do this.” Hunk responded although he also buried himself back into his books.

“No amount of time will make sense of why it needs to look like this,” He made a face of disgust as he glanced upwards and noticed a banana peel hanging from the still ceiling fan.

“How did this even…” He reached up and grabbed it before taking a final glance at his roommates. He shook his head, tossed the banana away, and retreated to his bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good luck Lance!
> 
> Tumblr: rosie-the-rascal


	6. Chapter 6

Keith woke up Sunday morning to the smell of bacon. Shiro was cooking, meaning Shiro was in a good mood.

It was moments like this that made Keith appreciate Shiro even more. Shiro was actually a good cook, which wasn’t surprising since he was seemingly good at everything.

“Morning,” Shiro said over the sound of grease popping in a pan.

Keith walked into the kitchen and grabbed a water from the fridge. “Mornin,” He looked around the kitchen. Eggs were in the process of being made and bacon was piled up on a plate ready to go. “Just a simple breakfast today?”

Shiro laughed. “Yep. I just really felt like eating eggs,” Shiro flipped over an egg in the pan. “Here, I have an over-easy one coming up for you.” He shifted a spatula beneath the egg and shimmied it onto a clean plate.

“Thanks,” Keith sat down at the high countertop connected to the kitchen. “I think the smell of food actually woke me up. I couldn’t resist staying in bed after that.” Keith reached for the bacon, dropping a few onto his own plate.

“Especially if it’s eggs and bacon huh?” Shiro cracked two more eggs into the frying pan.

“You know me too well,” Keith started eating. He was extremely thankful for mornings like this when Shiro was already cooking and he could leisurely just enjoy it. He glanced at the time on the stove. It was 10am. “This is later than usual for you.” And later than usual for Keith to wake up, although he woke up late the day before as well.

“It is,” Shiro scrambled the eggs in front of him. “Actually, I met a girl recently and we just started hanging out. She’s stopping by for a quick at home breakfast before our date today. She said she likes things simple.”

That was surprising. Shiro had a lot of friends and went out often but Keith hasn’t seen him take interest in a particular girl in a while.

“That’s a first. Since she’s coming by does that mean I’ll get to meet her?”

“Yeah. She should be here in about 10 minutes or so,” Shiro looked over at the stove clock as well. “I hope you like her. That matters a lot to me.”

Keith smiled. “I trust your judgement on nearly everything. I’m sure she’s great.”

“Nearly?” Shiro laughed. “Thanks Keith.”

Shiro has always been the person Keith looked up to. He didn’t necessarily take his problems to Shiro because that just wasn’t how Keith functioned but he did trust any advice Shiro threw at him. He didn’t know him to make many wrong choices. Keith didn’t know how he did it.

 

By the time Keith said his goodbyes to Shiro and his new “friend” it was just about 11 o’clock. He had four hours until he had to be at the library and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that time. What did he usually do on a Sunday morning? He studied on his own for starters but he didn’t have much work do this week so the light studying later should be enough. Other than that he read, went to the gym, watched documentaries, and took walks.

Keith never had to really think about it like that before but now that he did, his regular routines sounded kind of boring. Of course, he enjoyed every single activity he listed in his head but he knew they weren’t the most enticing options for a university student. Maybe Lance and company would help him learn to spend his free time more…excitingly.

The nervousness of going to see Lance wasn’t as adamant as it was before but he still couldn’t sit around the house and just feel restless. He needed to go out and preoccupy himself and that’s exactly what the gym was for.

He spent nearly two hours there after arriving at 12. With just an hour left until he had to meet the others, Keith decided to go home, shower, and watch a couple of videos until he needed to leave.

The video part was a complete mistake. Youtube adventures were addictive, leading Keith to jump from one clickbait title to another. He had a hard time breaking away from videos about space because they seriously blew his mind.

 

“You’re late!” Lance yelled when Keith showed up to their reserved library room 15 minutes late. “And you didn’t even respond to my message.”

Pidge shushed him.

“Hey Keith.”

Keith waved at Pidge and took a seat in the empty chair next to Lance and across from Pidge and Hunk. “Sorry I can’t exactly text and ride a bike at the same time,” He laid his backpack down on the table and tried to catch his breath without looking entirely out of stamina. He ended up not leaving the apartment until three on the dot because of those videos. “I got your message though, or else I wouldn’t have been able to find this room.”

Keith looked around. “I didn’t even know you could reserve rooms here.”

“We didn’t know at first either,” Hunk responded. “But one day, after the librarian almost kicked us all out for Lance being noisy, she recommended us do this, so we always have since then.”

“Neat,” Keith replied. “Unsurprising too.”

“I wasn’t even that loud. I think that librarian just has it out for me,” Lance scoffed. “She was probably just looking for a way to get this seductive young man out of her sights before she just couldn’t contain herself.”

“Ew Lance, she’s like 70 years old.” Pidge’s face scrunched up as Lance beamed with confidence.

“Desires exist for everyone Pidge, isn’t that right Keith?” Lance smirked at him like they were in on some kind of inside joke together, except they weren’t.

“Uhh, sure,” Why was Lance like this? “I don’t think that was her problem though.”

“What do you know?” Lance snapped at Keith. “My charm attracts woman and men, of all types.”

“If you say so…” Keith didn’t like where this conversation was going, or how Pidge and Hunk’s eyes were darting between the two of them, or how Lance was starting to take this conversation seriously.

Lance’s eyes narrowed at Keith. “I’m totally charming! You don’t think so?”

Keith tried to avoid looking directly back at Lance while he dug through his backpack and pulled out a textbook and notebook. “Past experience has really showed me a charming side to you.”

“I definitely was charming the first day we met.” Lance was frowning at Keith.

Keith could feel Hunk and Pidge’s eyes on him. He felt like he needed to pick and choose his words cautiously. He couldn’t help lacing them with sarcasm however. “Yeah for the two hours in that day in comparison to the couple of years I’ve known you now.”

“You said it!” Lance pumped a fist into the air. “For two whole hours I charmed you.” Lance looked unnecessarily proud of himself.

“Seriously Lance?” Keith felt his face getting hot. He just wanted to hurry and study.

“Seriously Keith. It’s to make up for just how charming I am in a two hour period.” Lance did a small celebratory dance to himself and Hunk laughed. Pidge looked at him and laughed too. Keith couldn’t figure out what was so funny. They were used to Lance acting like an ass so what made this so funny? He guessed this is why they were all friends with each other in the end.

“What are you guys studying for?” Keith asked Hunk and Pidge, trying to avoid any more of the previous conversation with Lance.

“Physics.” Pidge answered. Hunk nodded to show he was studying the same thing.

“And you?” Keith turned his head to Lance who sat back against his seat with his hands behind his head.

Lance scrambled forward and quickly looked between the books he had out. “Umm, English?”

Did Lance ever actually study?

“Do you have those textbooks out for show?” Keith peered at Lance.

“I am studying! Or at least I’m going to,” He spun his mechanical pencil in between his fingers. “I just prefer to usually study by myself.”

“Right…” Keith returned to his own books and ignored the glare from Lance. As far as Keith could remember, Lance never got bad test results, never flunked, or repeated a class, at least from what he noticed that is. Lance was likely not lying to him. “Why’d you agree to a study session then?”

“I thought it was a good excuse to hang out with you.”

Keith decided not to remove his eyes from the book. Lance could always just say whatever he felt like saying, not that Keith hated that. Who would hate hearing their crush say that they wanted an excuse to hang out with them?

“You could have just asked me to hang out.” He mumbled back.

“Could I have? I figured because you’re a nerd that I needed to bait you with studying and other nerds.”

Keith only sighed. He couldn’t bring himself to insult Lance back and not sound like a blubbering moron at the same time.

“Speaking of which,” Pidge thankfully chimed in. If she hadn’t, Lance at any moment could have heard the loud beating in Keith’s chest. The room was quiet enough for that, Keith thought.

“How was Voltron?”

“It was really good. Really really good,” Keith was starting to cool down. “If you thought the last movie was cool then you need to go see this one.”

“The trailer was awesome! I couldn’t imagine it turning out badly but I was a little scared that it might. The last book was kind of delicate.” Pidge was beaming. The truthfulness of her being a fan was so apparent that it warmed Keith on the inside.

“I thought so too, but the director took a great approach to everything. I couldn’t have hoped for a better adaptation.”

“That’s great.” Pidge breathed out a sigh of relief.

A hushed laughter came from Hunk and Lance.

“You two are kind of entertaining.” Lance snickered.

Keith frowned at Lance and Pidge glared at Hunk.

“What are you laughing for? You like the books too.” Pidge aimed her jab at Hunk.

Hunk put his hands up to defend himself from the comment. “I do, but Lance is right; it’s entertaining. In a good way though! Like it’s funny because it’s so pure and endearing.”

“We’re talking about a movie, what’s endearing about that?” Keith looked at Hunk.

Lance sighed. “They don’t understand Hunk. We’re laughing because you guys are so passionate and it’s cute.”

There goes Lance again, just when Keith got his head back on straight.

“We’ll talk about this on our own Keith,” Pidge looked at him directly, ignoring Lance’s comment. “Wanna come with me to go get snacks?”

“Sure.” Keith answered, trying his best to ignore Lance as well.

Keith turned to reach for the wallet in his bag. In the process he saw Lance and Pidge eyeing each other. They nearly swapped expressions considering Pidge was now grinning and Lance started gaping at her.

“Come on Keith.” Pidge headed for the door.

When he followed her out, Pidge turned to look through the glass window separating her and Keith from Hunk and Lance. She stuck her tongue out at Lance and continued walking.

Keith saw Lance get up to go after her until Hunk said something that Keith couldn’t hear. Whatever it was, it settled Lance down enough.

“What did you say to him before we left?” Keith asked.

Pidge snorted. “I didn’t say anything to him. I just make faces and he comes to all sorts of conclusions. I like to try and figure them out before he confronts me over it.”

“What conclusion do you think he came to this time?” Keith followed behind Pidge, quietly asking her questions until they could exit the library.

Pidge considered her answer. “This time he might think I’m going to be too nosey.”

“Why would he think that?” Keith held the library door open for Pidge.

“Thanks,” She walked outside, heading directly for the closest vending machine. “Can’t say why.”

“Just a feeling?” He asked.

She shrugged and nodded her head. “Yeah, a feeling that I have.”

Pidge’s eyes trailed over the machine. She was definitely looking for something.

“Yes, sour skittles!” She pushed a dollar bill into the machine aggressively and groaned when it spit her crumbled dollar back. “Take my money.”

After a well fought argument with the vending machine Pidge got her sour skittles.

“I guess I should get snacks for the others too,” She patiently flattened the bills and put several into the machine. “So Lance didn’t ruin the movie for you or anything did he?”

“Not really.” Keith recalled the overwhelming sense of awareness that Lance had over him during the movie. He didn’t actually ruin the movie but he did make it harder to focus on.

“Not really?” Pidge grabbed a handful of snacks from the slot. “Glad to hear the date went well.”

“Date?” Keith repeated.

“I’m just repeating what Lance said.”

“Lance called it a date?” Keith clicked his tongue. He pulled out a dollar for the machine. “I bet he considers walking by a girl to be a first date.”

Pidge laughed. “That’s not far from the truth but really, I think Lance enjoyed it. He was in a lot better condition last night than I’ve seen him since the breakup.”

“That’s good,” Keith smiled to himself. He stopped when he noticed Pidge looking at him funny. “Glad to help.”

“Keith, can I ask why you helped to begin with?”

He ducked below to grab his own snack. If Lance had worried that she would be too nosey, he was definitely right. How was he supposed to answer her question without sounding too invested for no real reason?

“It seemed like a good opportunity to make amends with Lance.” He faced Pidge who looked back at him skeptically.

“Okay. Why would you care though?”

“It’s a fun time having someone hate your guts for three years straight.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“Then why is your face so red?”

“My face?” Keith started to feel the heat. He knew for certain that he kept his cool while answering her and she must have called him out to provoke a blush. She knew. He didn’t know how she knew but she knew. “My face is not red.”

“You’re lying, it is!”

“Yeah, now that you brought it up!’

“Well that’s proof enough for me.”

“Proof of what?”

“That you had fun with Lance, that’s all”

“If you would have asked that question to begin with, I would have told you that.”

“I know.” She laughed, heading back towards the library.

“I think I understand why Lance jumps to crazy conclusions about you now.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

 

 

They remained quiet for a majority of the time in the study room after Pidge and Keith returned. Occasionally Pidge and Hunk would start up some idle conversation with him about hobbies and interests. It was nice. Keith got everything done within two and a half hours, so now he could just review for exams.

Every 30 minutes or so, Keith could see Lance lay his head down like he was out a fuel. It was kind of funny. Eventually after a couple of hours Lance must have exceeded his level of tolerance.

“I can’t do this any longer,” Lance stood up and dramatically closed his textbook. “I need to stretch. Anyone want to go on a walk?”

Pidge and Hunk were fully in their study zones now. Keith looked up at Lance out of reflex.

“Well, they’re completely out of it,” Lance pointed his thumb towards his friends and smiled. “Wanna come?”

“Yeah, sure.” Keith responded automatically.

He followed Lance out the door and stayed silent until they exited the library.

“Finally!” Lance let out an exasperated breath as if he couldn’t breathe instead of not talk in the library.

“That bad?” Keith asked.

“I don’t know how you guys can just sit like that and read for hours straight. It’s insane.”

“Like you said,” Keith began walking away from Lance on one of the campus sidewalks. “We’re a bunch of nerds. All we do is read.”

“I guess so,” Lance chuckled and quickened his pace until he was besides Keith. “I need cooler friends.”

“No one on this campus is cooler than we already are.”

“I’d beg to differ on that one. More importantly though, you said “we” as in you included as one of my friends?”

Keith regretted saying that so easily. Lance hated him for so long, what made him think they were friends just like that?

He didn’t respond but Lance apparently answered his own question.

“Phew,” Lance swiped a hand across his forehead as if there was sweat to wipe off. “I can’t believe how nice you actually are. I feel worse and worse each second about how cold I always acted towards you and especially more embarrassed about how trivial the problem was.”

“It’s cool man,” It was Keith’s turn to be relieved because Lance also thought of him as a friend now. “You were a pain in the ass, but I never hated you.”

“I don’t know how. I’d hate me if I were you.”

“Do you want me to hate you?”

“No way! I like hanging out with you and I’m super grateful that you helped me out of my temporary slump even if it wasn’t intentional. It’s just because it was you.”

Keith could feel his chest tighten again. He wondered if there was any hope for him if Lance was able to say things like this. Being gay kind of sucked because Keith could not tell the difference between being friendly and being flirty if it could save his life. Unless Lance was being obnoxious about it, but he couldn’t take that kind of flirting seriously anyway.

“How are you doing now anyway? With the breakup and all?” Keith asked, urgently trying to direct the conversation away from himself.

“I’m better than okay. I feel like I can tackle the world now.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Keith didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have experience in this. He probably shouldn’t have asked. “You’re not sad?”

“Not really. She is an amazing person, but we just didn’t fit together. I’d rather find someone who I feel like I can be myself with instead of someone I feel like I need to impress all the time. She didn’t set any outright expectations for me, she wasn’t like that, but I always felt like I shouldn’t be myself around her. Maybe she knew that. Maybe she wasn’t acting like herself entirely either.” Lance shrugged.

Lance must have thought about this a lot. Keith wondered what kind of person Lance would be able to be himself around. What actually makes Lance comfortable?

“Have you ever felt like that with someone?” Lance’s question caught Keith off guard.

“No.”

“So you’ve felt totally content in all of your relationships?” Lance looked at him like he was telling a huge lie.

“Uh-huh, yep, in all zero of my relationships.” Keith knew this was a serious topic to Lance but thinking about himself in a real relationship was laughable.

“What seriously?” Lance stopped walking immediately, forcing Keith to stop too. “You’ve never dated anyone?”

“No, I haven’t,” Keith was starting to feel defensive about this. He just didn’t have the time or social skills. The second reason was mainly the problem. “Why do you have to be so dramatic about it?”

“Sorry I didn’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just you’re pretty attractive so I can’t imagine you not having a girlfriend now even.”

And there goes their eye contact again, broken courteous of Keith. Lance probably doesn’t even realize the damage he did to Keith. He had to play this off quickly before he made it awkward.

“Even with the mullet?” Keith did air quotes over the offensive hairstyle name.

“Especially with the mullet dude. I know I was giving you shit about it but I don’t actually think your hair looks dumb.”

Keith was about to question the logic in Lance’s last statement but the sound of a phone alert went off and distracted Lance from the conversation.

Lance read the message and looked a little spaced out for a moment. Keith thought the face even looked mildly flushed in that moment as well. Lance eventually stuffed the phone back in his pocket without replying.

Lance coughed. “Anyway, why haven’t you dated anyone?”

“I guess I’m just not really good at it.”

“How would you know until you try talking to a girl?”

“The talking is the hard part.” Keith hated talking about this. What part of socially inept was Lance not getting from him?

“That’s the best part though. Don’t you ever want to go out and meet some pretty girls?”

Keith was starting to get aggravated. The guy you like trying to push your dating life forward with someone else was never a good sign.

“No, I don’t. I wouldn’t even know where to go for that and besides, I don’t like girls anyway”

“You don’t like girls…?” Lance asked innocently as if he wasn’t bisexual.

“No, I don’t.” Keith repeated with a different meaning this time.

“So you’re gay or you just don’t like people at all?” Keith could tell that Lance was genuinely curious but he had no experiences talking about this and it was awkward especially with Lance of all people.

“I’m gay Lance. I like men.” He added the second statement to avoid any more obviously answered questions from Lance.

“Oh…that’s cool. I had no idea.” Lance responded in a much quieter voice than he used to interrogate Keith with.

Was Lance weirded out by this? He couldn’t be. Well, he could but it wouldn’t make much sense. Lance stayed quiet longer than Keith was used to. He regretted more and more things he said the longer he spoke to Lance.

“Do you have anyone that you like?”

“I do.” It wouldn’t do Keith any good to lie about it, especially if there was any chance that he would get Lance’s attention. He silently hoped Lance might at least consider himself an option.

“Really? They don’t know?” Lance asked loudly making Keith wish that his silence lasted just a few seconds long at least. “Who is it?”

“As if I’m telling you. You’d probably tell the whole school.”

“What? I would never! I’m your friend and you should definitely trust and tell me about your crush.”

The word “crush” made Keith’s stomach do a flip. He could tell this was just Lance being curious and not necessarily friendly.

“Maybe another time. I can’t do it now.”

Lance let out a sigh. “Fine. But promise you won’t keep me in suspense for too long.”

“Sure.” Keith said quietly, mostly to himself.

“We should probably head back now before Pidge and Hunk get any crazy ideas.”

Keith had no idea what crazy ideas they could come up with while they were all on campus but he just followed along anyway, his mind was too filled with repeating lines from Lance during their walk to be bothered by anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're getting _somewhere_
> 
> Tumblr: [rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 7

Lance slumped into his apartment after his last class of the week. Thankfully, midterms were finally over for him. Two weeks had gone by since he had first willingly hung out with Keith by watching Voltron with him. Since then, he hardly left his room after realizing that he really did need to study for his exams, but now that it was Friday and his tests were over, he was ready to leave the apartment and loosen up a bit. Unfortunately, his roommates and dearest of friends still had one more exam on the upcoming Monday which was apparently more important and tougher than their other exams combined, so he couldn’t exactly expect them to leave the apartment as well.

Keith might be free. Lance hadn’t spoken to him much these last few weeks. Both of them had midterms throughout the week so they scarcely exchanged texts about classes and Lance sent the occasional meme that he thought was funny. They met up for lunch along with Pidge and Hunk a few times but they were never long get-togethers and they were mostly too stressed to happily interact anyway. Lance figured that now was a good time to make up for lost time.

L 2:29pm [Hey Keithers you busy tonight?]

L 2:29pm [Im soo bored L Those exams drained my soul and I need to get it back]

K 2:35pm [You can come over if you want but im cooking now]

K 2:35pm [So it might not be any less boring than staying home…]

L 2:35pm [You cook?! Hunk hasnt fed me in days! Im on my way]

K 2:36pm [Ok]

L 2:36pm [As long as you don’t mind. I have a bad habit of inviting myself places]

K 2:37pm [I don’t. I invited you and having company would be nice anyway. My roommate is leaving soon]

L 2:37pm [Alright cool. Whats your address?]

Keith sent his address to Lance who began frantically getting ready to go. His stomach was already grumbling at the thought of actual food. Not macaroni, not ramen, not miscellaneous snacks, but real food.

K 2:40pm [Let me know when you get nearby. I’ll meet you outside the complex]

L 2:42pm [Got it!]

Lance checked his wallet to make sure he had his bus pass. He stuffed the wallet into his pocket, grabbed his keys off of the counter, and rushed out the door. If he left fast enough he could catch the 2:50 bus going Keith’s direction.

He made it to his stop with a few minutes to spare, hopefully, unless his bus already came. Lance looked down the street both ways for the bus. He couldn’t see anything in either direction.

Lance sighed and slouched against the “bus-stop” sign. At least he could catch his breath now; it would be really nice if the bus would come on time though. He rolled a rock beneath his foot and watched down the street. Luck must have been on his side because the bus was finally coming, five minutes late but it was coming and Lance’s heart was fluttering. He wouldn’t have to wait much longer to see Keith now.

The bus was as rowdy and stuffy as usual; Lance didn’t mind it today. He hummed and shook his leg throughout the duration of the ride. Being nervous and being happy fell hand in hand for Lance right now and he loved it.

When Lance knew they were pulling up to the street where Keith’s complex was, he pulled out his phone to let Keith know where he was. Considering Keith only lived a few streets over, Lance would probably be right outside the complex in about eight minutes.

 

The bus slowed down in front of a large apartment complex that Lance had seen a few times before on his bus rides. Keith was sitting at the bus bench waiting for him. Lance smiled to himself and waved the driver on to let him know that Keith wasn’t boarding. The driver gave him a small nod and the engine popped again until the bus was on its way down its route.

“Hey.” Lance smiled at Keith, who looked dangerously cute in his grey sweatpants with a little green alien head by the pocket and his black long sleeved shirt.

“Hey.” Keith responded.

Lance couldn’t help but look Keith over as hopefully unnoticeably as he could. That was until he spotted a problem with Keith’s previously adorable outfit.

“What are those?” Lance pointed distastefully at Keith’s feet. “Are you wearing crocs?” He winced at his own words.

At first, Lance didn’t notice them because they were black, but now it was all he could look at. Not only were they crocs, they were Voltron themed crocs and the fronts looked like the head of the black lion.

“Yeah,” Keith’s eyes fell down to his shoes and then back up at Lance defensively. “I didn’t want to unlace my shoes just to walk over here.”

“Okay I understand that, but why do you even own those?” Lance tried to not sound too repulsed; It was a struggle, however.

“Shiro thought they were cool and wanted us both to own a pair and even though I like the red lion the most I figured black would be less noticeable.” Keith wiggled his foot out in front of himself.

The croc-wearer was visibly upset about being called out, but Lance was upset about the fashion choice and he had every right to be.

“Less noticeable for like half a second, but you can’t hide those!” He pointed a finger again at Keith’s crocs.

“Leave them alone,” Keith slapped Lance’s hand away and turned to start walking into the complex. “They’re comfortable.”

“C-comfortable?” Lance scoffed. “They won’t be comfortable when the fashion police catch you and throw you and your crocs in jail.”  He couldn’t drag his eyes away from the shoes as he trailed behind Keith.

Keith didn’t respond to his comment.

“Who is Shiro anyway? I think I need to sit him down and have a talk about wrong and right choices.” Lance folded his arms and glared at nothing in particular.

“He’s my roommate.” Keith stuffed his hands into his pockets and continued walking.

“Yeah? If my roommates tried to get me to buy matching crocs I’d turn them down in a heartbeat.”

“That’s you. Mr. I’m Too Cool To Exist.” Keith put his hands up mockingly as he spoke.

“What? I’m not—” Lance took in a deep breath. “Fine. They’re okay when you wear them, but I still have no idea why they were made or even thought about.”

“When I wear them?” Keith turned to Lance; the confusion was lingering in his features. Lance sped up to walk besides Keith instead of behind him.

“Well yeah, because you’re Keith and you’re wearing Voltron crocs. It’s cute,” Lance continued explaining. “If anyone else wore them, I’d have to rip them from their feet and burn those crocs.”

Keith’s lips quivered before he turned back to walk forward. “I don’t know why you associate Voltron and cute together so often. You’re ridiculous.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Keith was crazy dense and that fact might just be the death of Lance. He so obviously associated Keith and cute together, not Voltron and cute but somethings are better left unsaid he supposed.

Keith led Lance up a flight of stairs and pulled a key out of his pocket.

“Woah d-dude!” Lance grabbed Keith by the shoulder and ducked behind him.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked. He scowled at Lance who was currently digging his finger nails in Keith’s arm.  

“That’s my ex-girlfriend over there, getting into that guy’s car.” He pointed at a black car in the parking lot just below them.

“Huh?” Keith followed Lance’s gaze and raised an eyebrow at Lance. “Are you talking about Allura?”

“How do you know Allura?” Lance looked up at Keith incredulously while still hiding behind him. “And hurry up and open the door before she sees me.”

“Oh yeah,” Keith twisted the key in the lock and opened the door. He stepped inside and took his shoes off by the door. “I think she might be dating Shiro, or trying to at least. Not sure, but I just met her recently.”

“What? She’s already out dating?” Lance groaned and took off his own shoes. 

“I thought you didn’t care anymore.” Keith patted one of the bar stool seats facing the kitchen and picked up from wherever he left off while cooking.

Momentarily, Lance looked around the apartment and made a mental note that he was in Keith’s apartment. Keith lived here. Lance couldn’t say he wasn’t getting _anywhere_ with this relationship.

Lance sat down on the given stool and pouted. “I don’t, but I can’t believe she snapped back so quickly and I’m here alone. You said they’re not dating yet?”

“I guess not. Shiro is particular about things like that, but they hangout all the time and go places together and eat together which is dating anyway right?”

“Pretty much,” Lance took a whiff of whatever Keith was cooking and felt his mouth water. “Babe, what are you making?”

Keith looked at him with disgust. Lance was learning that Keith was not fond of nicknames.

“It’s nothing special; just French bread pizza with barbeque chicken.”

Lance felt like he was in heaven. He loved pizza, and barbeque, and chicken, and probably Keith too while he’s at it. This is what happens when Hunk doesn’t make dinner for a week. He falls in love with anyone who will cook for him.

“You’re like an angel.” Lance could feel his eyes watering too; he was so hungry.

“And you’re an idiot,” Keith walked over to the oven to put the pizzas in. “I told you it’s nothing special.”

Lance swore he could see the tip of Keith’s ears redden from behind.

“Anyway, where’d you meet this Shiro guy? He looks reliable from where I was standing; he also apparently buys crocs though so I’m torn on an opinion here.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Shiro is a good guy. We’re actually friends from the group home we were raised at.”

“You’re an orphan?”

“No. I just lived there to get away from my parents.”

“Okay, dumb question. Go on.” Thoughts before words wasn’t common practice for Lance. He heard a short laugh leave Keith’s mouth anyway.

“Shiro was the closest thing to family that I had there and he promised that he’d look out for me after I was able to move out,” Keith paused while he adjusted the heat for the stove. “He’s older than me so by the time I was 18, he had already finished college and started a career. I didn’t want to rely on him immediately after leaving the group home but he had already gotten this apartment by the university I wanted to go to so I couldn’t just say no. I’m really thankful he’s in my life or else I don’t know where I’d be now.”

Lance couldn’t see the expression on Keith’s face but he could imagine it from the solemnness in his voice. He was grateful that Keith was opening up to him. Talking about his own life wasn’t something that Keith seemed to do often.

“I learn a new thing about you every day,” Lance wondered to himself if Shiro was the person Keith might like. The thought left a painful twinge in Lance’s gut but he couldn’t be upset; Shiro was obviously important to Keith and Lance couldn’t dismiss that. “Shiro sounds like a great person.”

“Yeah, it’s admirable how he can always be so amazing. I almost feel bad that he has to watch over a guy like me.” Keith let out a hollow laugh.

“A guy like you?” Lance asked. “He’s lucky to have an adorable dork of a friend who’s so smart and determined. Maybe you don’t see it, but I can tell you’re a worthwhile person and I’m guessing Shiro, even with his questionable tastes, can tell that too.”

Keith didn’t respond; Lance started to regret opening his mouth. He naturally added in flirty words to nearly all of his conversations but saying them now to Keith was making him embarrassed. He couldn’t help saying nice things to Keith because he truly meant them and Keith’s reactions were the best; except when he didn’t respond and left Lance to overthink everything. Aside from that, the faint blushes and eye evasions were cute; Lance could tease him all day if given the chance.

“Food is ready,” Keith pulled oven mitts over his hands and turned to Lance. His face was flushed when he looked at Lance. “Want to watch something? We have DVD’s over there.” He pointed with the oven mitt on which didn’t really help Lance out any with directions, but luckily finding a shelf of DVD’s wasn’t exactly hard.

Lance got off of the stool and headed into the living room. He searched through the DVD’s until he found one that really caught his attention.

“You own The Room?” He looked over at Keith, practically beaming with excitement. “Can we _please_ watch this? It’s like my favorite movie!”

Keith frowned at him and hesitated. “I thought that Shark Boy and Lava Girl was your favorite?”

“That is my favorite movie,” Lance said quietly and cleared his throat. “How do you even know about that?”

Keith shrugged. “Pidge might have mentioned it to me before.”

“ _Pidge_ ,” Lance repeated through gritted teeth. Maybe he and she needed to have a talk. He would save that for another time. “Whatever, can we watch this? It’s _one_ of my favorites.”

“It’s one of my favorites too but,” Keith sighed. “I don’t know if I’m ready to watch it again. I can only watch that once every million years.”

“Come on,” Lance threw his hands up in the air dramatically bringing them down as he spoke. “You’re tearing me apart Keith!”

Keith snorted and looked like he was trying badly to stifle a laugh. “Fine, we’ll watch that.” He placed the pizzas on a small tray and put it on the coffee table in the living room.

“Yes! You are the best! Homemade food and a great movie; I could nearly die in peace.”

Lance felt so happy. He’s watched this movie only a hundred times prior and it’s not like Hunk has never cooked before they watched a movie. It was an entirely different type of enjoyment when he did this with Keith. The more he sat on the idea, the more he understood how much he liked Keith. He could only hope that Pidge was right when she said that Keith liked him back. After Sunday Funday, she said that ‘ _upon conversing with Keith outside the study room, it was clear that he was smitten and it was actually hard to watch him around you. He’s a mess, just like you’_. He would like to believe her; he couldn’t squash the spark of hope that he harbored if he wanted to, but now that he heard Keith talk about Shiro, he wasn’t so sure of himself. For the time being, until he saw a good opportunity to confess, he was just going to enjoy every second with Keith for as long as he could.

Keith brought out two plates and offered Lance a drink before sitting down on the opposite end of the couch from Lance.

 

Halfway into the movie, both of them were practically crying from laughter; Lance had never met anyone who loved this stupid movie as much as he did. He had never laughed this hard at it and maybe it was because Keith laughed at all the stupid scenes right on cue and Lance was a sympathy laugher. He couldn’t believe he was blessed enough to see Keith laugh this much.  

Lance wished more than anything that he could just scoot over and lean against Keith for the remaining duration of the movie. He was a sucker for cuddling, especially when other person looked so soft. Usually Keith was rough around the edges and tried to play the tough guy, but tonight, he was the most relaxed that Lance has ever seen. Keith was comfortable enough around Lance to show him this side of himself and talk about his personal life; even if Keith didn’t have any romantic inclinations towards him, Lance was happy that they were friends nonetheless.

 

When “The Room” ended, Keith showed Lance his collection of poorly made movies and they made a hysterical marathon out of it. Most of them Lance recognized, but the ones he didn’t know, he was more than excited to watch.

During one of the movies that Lance hadn’t seen before, Keith felt the need to point out a small detail on the screen. Lance couldn’t figure out what he was talking about, and instead of getting up and pointing directly at the image on the screen, Keith nudged himself closer to Lance and pointed from their angle. Lance stopped looking for whatever Keith was talking about once he felt their shoulders brush against each other. He pretended to see it and silently prayed that Keith wouldn’t move. He didn’t and that’s the story of how that particular movie became once of Lance’s new favorites.

After 2 movies and painful stomach cramps from laughing too much, Lance felt Keith fall limply against him. His body froze because Keith was actually sleeping against him and this was the cutest thing he had ever seen in his life. How could he have ever thought that this guy was evil to the core? Seeing Keith like that did however, make Lance a little sleepy himself. The past two weeks were tiresome and he could use a nap. He’d only close his eyes for a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I had to include the Room in a klance fanfiction. I just don't know.
> 
> Tumblr: [rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com)


	8. Chapter 8

It was just about 10:30 at night when Keith woke up to a sudden bright light. He couldn’t believe he fell asleep while watching movies with Lance at his apartment. He couldn’t believe that he fell asleep snuggled up to Lance while watching movies at his apartment. He scooted over as quickly and cautiously as he could.

Keith ran his fingers through his hair and picked up his phone groggily to check the time.

“Hey Shiro,” He avoided looking at Shiro momentarily while he shook Lance lightly. Lance was fast asleep, with his mouth partly opened. Keith almost didn’t want to wake him up, however, he was already blinking himself awake now.

“It’s really late.” Keith pulled his hand back.

“Oh shit, sorry,” Lance grimaced. “I didn’t mean to sleep for too long.”

“I fell asleep too, don’t worry.”

“Um…” Shiro stood by the light switch in the living room awkwardly.

“Right,” Keith scratched his head. “Lance, this is Shiro. Shiro, that’s Lance.” He pointed at Shiro and yawned.

Lance yawned too and waved at Shiro lazily. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too…” Shiro responded, looking at Keith for answers, but Keith was too sleepy to really comply.

“I should probably get going then.” Lance started to stand up and stretch; Keith stood up right afterwards. He should probably wake himself up right about now.

“Do you need a ride home? Or did you drive here?” Shiro asked cautiously. Keith figured he’d probably ask that soon.

“No thanks, I don’t want to ride with a croc loving weirdo,” Lance checked his own phone for the time now. “I can still catch the last bus.”

“Croc loving—what?” Shiro’s eyes-widened in confusion. He was blatantly ignored by both of them.

“I’ll walk you to the bus stop.” Keith followed Lance to the door and slipped on his Voltron crocs.

Lance looked down and sighed as Keith headed out the door. “Goodnight Shiro, it was nice to meet you.”

Shiro waved casually although the bewilderment didn’t leave his face for a second.

 

They were both fully awake by the time they got to the bus stop.

“Thanks for coming over.” Keith said quietly with his hands in his pockets. He wondered to himself if Lance was cold in his T-shirt since the temperature dropped. He probably should have offered him a jacket.

Lance laughed. “I practically invited myself and you even made food. I should be thanking you.” Lance smiled at him and Keith had to look away. Lance had bed hair, really nice looking bed hair.

“I guess so,” Keith could feel himself getting nervous. It was too quiet out here. Weren’t Friday nights supposed to be bustling with college students? He guessed that wouldn’t be the case in a residential area. “We should hangout again soon. I enjoyed this.”

 “I agree,” Lance seemed to be grinning at nothing. “I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.”

Keith chuckled at the thought of the movies. He laughed embarrassingly hard. He never even laughed like that in front of Shiro.

“Those movies will always be the greatest bad films in existence.” Keith made another painfully cringey statement but what else could he say? Should he apologize for falling asleep against Lance? No. Maybe Lance didn’t know. He’d like to think that at least.

“Yeah they will,” Lance hummed and they both remained quiet for a few moments.

“You know Keith, hanging out with you has been super fun lately. I can’t believe we were fighting all this time when we could have been best buddies. Even though we haven’t been friends for long, I really appreciate you man,” Lance pulled out his bus pass when the vehicle started to pull up alongside the curb. “And I think the person you like is really lucky.”

Keith couldn’t get a grasp on his words before Lance started to step into the bus.

“I think you know just how lucky you are.” Keith mumbled.

“What was that?” Lance held onto the bus rail and leaned out the door.

“Get in here or else I’ll close the door on your face.” The driver belted and Lance quickly looked back to glare at the driver.  

“You should really go sit down.” Keith could feel his heart racing way faster than usual.

“No, no, no. What did you just say?” Lance looked at him like he just spilled the biggest secret in the entire universe.  

“I said,” Keith took a deep breath. “I think he knows just lucky he is.”

“O-oh,” Lance stared at Keith wide-eyed and he couldn’t tell if Lance’s face was red because of the cold weather or because he heard what Keith actually said. Lance leaned back in the bus. “I hope so.” He slid his bus pass across the scanner and waved at Keith awkwardly as the doors closed.

Keith waved back and the bus sped off. He could have sworn he saw Lance nearly topple forward as the bus started moving. Keith would be mad too if he was a bus driver who had other stops to make it to on time and people interrupted that.

He tried to distract himself with silly thoughts like that but he felt a clench in his heart. Does Lance know? Lance had to have known. Even when he tried to reword himself to not be so obvious, that was still a weird thing to say with that timing. Why did he always have to say weird things to Lance?

Keith walked back to his apartment with his hand over his mouth. He was still lost in thought when he walked through the door and met Shiro who obviously would have a thousand questions for him.

“So Lance huh?” Shiro asked, turning down the TV. “How’d that happen?”

“He just needed something to do since all of his friends were busy tonight.” Keith took his shoes off and started walking towards his room.

“Not all of his friends,” Shiro smiled to himself and Keith could see that “big-brother” expression in his eyes. “I hope everything works out with you two; He seems nice. Except that croc comment…what was he even talking about?”

“He thinks my shoes are a fashion disaster,” Keith pointed at the crocs he left by the door. “I blamed you for me owning them and now he’s really questioning your decision making skills.”

“My decision making skills? I thought they were cute.” Shiro furrowed his eyebrows.

“He thought so too,” Keith kicked one of his legs forward a little. “At least when I wore them…is what he said.”

Shiro laughed. “Alright. I’ll take the bullet for this one if it helped you out.”

Keith blushed. “Goodnight Shiro.”

“Night Keith.” Shiro turned the TV back up. It was always set at a particular volume so that Shiro could hear it perfectly but Keith couldn’t hear it while in his room.

 

The sound of the TV wouldn’t have mattered to Keith anyway tonight because he couldn’t sleep a wink. He wanted to text Lance and say something, anything to see what was going on in Lance’s head now.

He laid in bed thinking about what he would say if he did decide to text Lance now. He blinked probably once every 20 seconds while staring at the ceiling and revisiting the awkward bus stop scene over and over again.

Texting Lance might be a bother but at least he’d get it out of the way. There was always a chance that Lance could feel the same way. He acts like he might but it was safer for Keith to believe he didn’t return his feelings. He did say that the person Keith likes is lucky, but it was easy to say things like that until you know that you are that person.

Keith groaned and took a deep breath. He couldn’t think clearly enough to figure out a good approach to this. He could always just text Lance to see if he made it home safely. That was subtle enough.

He reached for his phone on the nightstand. It vibrated against his hand, making him nearly throw it into the darkness.

There was a text from Lance.

L 11:28pm [Thx again for having me. Btw, Pidge and Hunk want to know if you want to go to the arcade with us on Tuesday?]

L 11:29pm [Sorry if I woke you up]

Lance was acting normal or at least as normal as Keith could tell over text. Maybe he really didn’t hear him the first time and wasn’t fazed the second time.

K 11:30pm [It’s okay. I was still awake]

K 11:30pm [I’d like to come]

L 11:31pm [Cool J I’ll see you before Tuesday though?]

K 11:31pm [You can’t spend a day alone can you?]

L 11:32pm [Wheres the crime in wanting to see my friend?]

K 11:33pm [Let’s meet up on Sunday then]

K 11:33pm [If you’d like to]

L 11:33pm [Yessss]

K 11:33pm [Goodnight Lance]

L 11:34pm [Night Keithers]

Knowing that Lance and he were still okay was enough to let him fall asleep for now. Seeing him in person again will be an entirely different story but he didn’t hate this feeling. He was nervous, scared, and excited all at the same time. He strictly tried to avoid feeling like this but he couldn’t help it with Lance. Where was the real harm in falling asleep while imagining a world in which he and Lance were happily together?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ended up posting these at the same time because these last two chapters were shorter. Thank you for all the support, it means more to me than you know!
> 
> Tumblr: [rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com)


	9. Chapter 9

“Okay, Keith is down.” Lance said to Pidge and Hunk. His roommates were playing video games after an entire day’s worth of studying.

“Great.” Pidge was focused on the game in front of her. Her and Hunk were competing against each other in a space racing game that Lance didn’t recognize.

“Guys, I don’t know what to think,” Lance plopped himself onto the couch behind where Pidge and Hunk sat on the floor. “Keith said something today that kind of sounded like I was the one he liked but I totally didn’t hear him completely and when he repeated himself, it sounded like he said something else entirely.”

“What’d he say to you?” Hunk asked while violently moving the controller left and right as if to direct his player’s turns.

“Well I lamely told him that the person he likes is really lucky,” Pidge snorted at that and Lance, red faced now, glared at her even though she couldn’t see him. “Anyway, I thought he said ‘I think you already know how lucky you are’ but when I had him repeat it he said ‘I think _he_ knows how lucky _he_ is.’ Which isn’t even the same thing.”

“Dude, Lance,” Hunk paused as he made a daring jump in the game and barely landed it. “I think Keith likes you.”

“I know you do but there’s this guy he lives with that he’s super happy about and I can see why. He grew up with Keith and they’re best friends, so I can’t help but think that this guy is who Keith is head over heels for.”

“Did you see Keith interact with him at all?” Pidge asked.

“A little bit when I was leaving. I didn’t really see much of Keith’s expressions though,” Lance trailed off in thought about the night. “SPEAKING OF,” Lance yelled loud enough to earn an angry hush each from Pidge and Hunk. “That guy is totally seeing Allura right now!”

“Really?” Pidge actually sounded surprised. “Small world.”

“Mhm.” Hunk agreed without removing his focus from the game.

“Does that bother you?” Pidge asked.

“Not really. It’s just weird. I wonder if Keith told him about me.”

“Who knows,” Pidge brought her attention back to the game too. “More importantly, when are you going to tell Keith how you feel?”

“I just can’t yet. I’m still sorting things out,” Lance stretched across the couch, bumping an elbow into Pidge’s head in the process. “I need to know if he’s into Shiro first and like I said before, I don’t want him to think I’m rushing in and out of a relationship.”

“Well you kind of are.” Hunk said.

“If we started dating soon then yeah, it’d be quick but I don’t want him to think that I just always need to be in a relationship. I really do like him.”

“I’m so proud of you Lance.” Pidge said while sliding over so her head wasn’t anywhere near Lance anymore.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be so tactful of someone.”

“I just don’t want to mess this up,” Lance yawned and forced himself to sit up before he fell asleep on another couch. “Anyway, I’m going to bed. Long week. See you nerds in the morning.”

“Or afternoon,” Pidge narrowed her eyes at the screen. “Hunk I swear if you leave one more asteroid bomb out for me I _will_ annihilate your ship!”

“I’d like to see you try.” Hunk laughed with clear malice behind it.

Seeing them in the afternoon probably was more accurate. They’d be up forever playing games. It would be one of those nights where he would not be able to sleep unless he wore earplugs. Weren’t they supposed to be studying for their last exam? That’s what tomorrow must have been for and he would probably find another banana peel on the ceiling fan by the end of the night.

***

It was Saturday and Lance was bored out of his mind. Pidge and Hunk were completely consumed in studying and Keith was busy. With what, Lance had no idea, but it had to do with Shiro and that in itself struck a chord of jealousy somewhere deep inside of him. That was fine; he would see Keith the next day. He just needed to be patient.

Having the patient mentality only took Lance so far. He needed to busy his mind with something other than Keith having feelings for Shiro. Going outside and getting some fresh air wouldn’t be a bad idea.  

“I’m leaving.” Lance stepped out of his bedroom at around 2pm. His departure announcement must have fallen on deaf ears because neither roommate looked up at him.

He figured he should at least get out of the apartment. He was hungry and they still haven’t bought groceries. There was a nice spot nearby that Allura and he used to go to often. It was a small café named Balmera and they had great lunch specials that Lance could actually afford. Some time to himself probably wasn’t a bad thing anymore.

Lance could walk to this place within 10 minutes. It felt so familiar and finally not the sad kind of familiar either.

He walked inside and noticed the place looked exactly the same as the last time he came, even the usual barista was there. This time of day was when he and Allura would normally go so it wasn’t unusual to see the same workers.

The barista there now was named Shay. She was always sweet and helpful when he came by before. Lance had a tough choice picking out a first time order and she figured out the best thing for him right then and there. It’s been his regular ever since. Lance had never meant a barista so attentive to her customers before. He was pretty sure most of the customers came here just to see her.

She immediately recognized him when he walked up to the counter.

“Lance!” Her face lit up and her voice was louder than he’s ever heard her. However, that didn’t say much since she was very soft-spoken. “It’s been a while. Not a long while but at least a while.”

“I haven’t found much time to stop in lately.” He scratched the back of his head and smiled.

“Allura doesn’t come by often either,” She looked at him sadly. “You two used to come by all the time.”

“I hate to be the bearer of my own bad news, well it’s not really bad news anymore, but anyway, Allura and I broke up.” Lance smiled weakly when Shay looked at him with a harsh mixture of sadness and shock.

“I’m surprised. You two got along so well. Are you guys okay?” She was earnest about her feelings so Lance didn’t feel too bad catching her up on recent events.

“I’m fine. I think she’s fine too. We haven’t talked since the breakup but I have a feeling she’s doing well.” He did his best to look pleasant while she watched him cautiously.

“I’ll trust you on that,” She smiled at him even though the concern still lingered in her eyes. “Did you wanna get your usual today?”

“You bet I do.” Lance replied. He then noticed her looking at someone behind him. It must have been another regular. Lance turned around and he was right; it was definitely another regular. It was Allura.

She looked just like she did last time Lance saw her face to face. Long silver hair curled perfectly, slender figure, and a glisten in her eyes that never really did go away.

Allura froze and momentarily looked as if she was going to turn around and leave the café. Lance didn’t blame her, she broke up with him.

She walked forward anyway and smiled.

“Hi Lance.”

“Hey Allura. Long time no see.” Lance felt an uncomfortable sense of anxiety. He was okay now, he was, but seeing the person he had just experienced a breakup with was still nerve-racking.

“It hasn’t been very long at all.” She laughed and somehow that eased his tension a lot.

“I guess it hasn’t been.” He chuckled softly.

“Maybe this is good,” Allura eyed him more seriously now. “I think we should talk. I just don’t feel right about how everything was left.”

Lance held up a hand and shook his head. He knew what this was about. Allura would just re-explain herself in a way that she felt she didn’t explain the first time. What she doesn’t know is that the heart-broken Lance from that day isn’t the same Lance standing in front of her.

“I understand Allura,” He grinned at her. “But I’m okay now. I know why you broke up with me and I’m actually glad to see you today so I can thank you.”

She looked at him confused.

“I-I don’t mean like thanking you for breaking up with me,” He stuttered. He wasn’t the best at explaining himself. “What I mean is that when you told me that we might not be meant for each other, I took it in the worst way at first, but you weren’t wrong for saying that,” He laughed to himself. “We enjoyed our time together but enjoying our time and feeling completely happy are two different things.”

Allura looked like she wanted to cry but she didn’t look sad.

“Actually I think I found someone that I can feel that way with. It didn’t take much for that person to convince me that I can be happy with someone else. They were exactly what I needed to help me understand your words and I think that’s how you must feel with the person that you found as well, right?”

She smiled at him. “Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel.”

“I’m glad that we can both be happy. We deserve it.” He laughed and she did too.

“We really do,” She grinned knowingly. “I’m glad you feel that way Lance. I felt terrible about the entire thing and still do, but if you say that you’re happy then I am too.” She elbowed him in the side and smirked. “So have you told this person how you feel yet?”

Lance sighed. He stepped out of the way from the register they were blocking once another customer walked in. That was probably a relief to Shay who awkwardly had to busy herself with something else so she wasn’t blatantly eavesdropping. Allura followed him and stood in front of the store window alongside him.

“I haven’t said anything yet but I’m dying to,” Lance huffed. “I will soon though. Even if it doesn’t turn out the way I want it to, I’ll tell him how I feel.”

“Him?” Allura seemed confused and Lance could have sworn he told her that he was bi. Or maybe he didn’t because she never seemed to forget anything.

“Can you keep a secret?” He looked around the small café and leaned closer to her. She nodded and reflexively leaned in as well. “It’s Shiro’s roommate, Keith.”

She stood up straight. Her mouth fell open and she immediately repeated the two names that she recognized.

“Shhh,” Lance put a finger in front of his lips and looked at her sternly. “Only Pidge and Hunk know. You cannot by any means tell Shiro about this.”

Allura still looked significantly shocked but she nodded her head again anyway.

“I can’t believe you know about Shiro.”

“Well, I was going over to Keith’s to hangout and then I saw you getting into some dude’s car. I hadn’t met Shiro yet but Keith obviously knew him and explained it all to me.”

Allura seemed nearly impressed. “Wow. How bizarre.”

“I know right?” He laughed.

“Keith seems nice though. He’s a bit quiet so I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know him yet, but he’s been nothing but nice to me so far.”

Lance smiled fondly. “Don’t let his quiet demeanor fool you, he’s kind of a demon sometimes, but you’re right. He is nice. I like him a lot.”

“I can see that.” Allura giggled. She probably noticed Lance’s face turn red when he talked about Keith. He could feel the warmth in his cheeks get hotter as the seconds past.

“Anyway, tell Shay I’m sorry I can’t stay. It’ll be unbearably awkward to eat here at the same time as you so I’m going to go,” Lance grinned and walked towards the door.

“Make sure Shiro treats you right!” He said while opening the door.

“Make sure you treat Keith right!” She teased.

He blew a raspberry at her through the window of the shop. She rolled her eyes playfully back at him.  

Allura really was a nice person. He appreciated her being in his life for the extent that she was. If he was lucky enough to keep Keith in his life after he spills his heart out to him then maybe he’d catch Allura here and there and they could be the good friends they were always meant to be. There really is a lesson learned from every person you get to know.

Lance felt like he was on cloud nine. The more he talked about his feelings out loud, the better he felt overall. He was starting to feel confident in himself again.

Of course, the idea of Keith liking Shiro tormented him on the inside, but he felt like he could finally tell Keith how he felt. He wanted to as soon as possible; tomorrow even if he could.

He pulled his phone out to text Keith and confirm plans for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're rooting for you Lance!
> 
> -Chapter 10 is coming right behind this (:  
> Tumbr: [rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


	10. Chapter 10

Keith slipped on his regular shoes behind Shiro. Today they were going furniture shopping. Why Keith had to go, he still didn’t know, but here he was walking out the door anyway.

“Is there a style you always wanted? Something you want for your room maybe?” Shiro asked while starting up his car’s engine.

“You buying new furniture for the living room is already going to cost enough as it is. Besides, I like my room now.” Keith buckled himself in and leaned his head against the window.

“You only have a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. Nothing else.”

“I know.” Keith smiled to himself. “I like it though. I don’t need anything flashy in a place I just use to sleep."

“If you say so,” Shiro hummed. “Did you have anything in mind for the living room?”

“Hmm,” Keith thought aloud. “How about a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand.”

Shiro clicked his tongue and laughed. “Why am I bringing you again?”

“That’s my line,” Keith chuckled. “Why are we getting new furniture anyway?

“I just want to make it look more homely you know? It just looks like a bachelor pad but with the dullest furniture choices possible.”

“And that’s bad how?” Keith arched an eyebrow at Shiro.

“It’s just not very presentable.” Shiro sighed.

“Presentable for who?” Keith snorted. “Allura?”

“Well,” Shiro looked at Keith momentarily before bringing his eyes back to the road. “I do want to look like I care both outside of home and inside, so yeah, presentable for her.”

“Did she say anything about the place during the times she was here?”

“No. She hasn’t said anything, but I’ve been to her place and I can tell she cares a lot about the style of her home. Then she comes over to our place and it probably bores her.”

“Shiro, I doubt she’s judging you based on the lack of style in your apartment. If it was dirty or unorganized, then maybe she’d judge you.”

“I’m probably overthinking it.”

“You are,” Keith gave Shiro a small smile. “But it wouldn’t hurt to change things up a bit. A change of pace could be good.”

“Glad to hear you’re on board then,” Shiro laughed.

“If it’ll make you feel better then obviously I’m on board with it.”

“Thanks Keith,” Shiro tapped his fingers on the steering wheel a few times. “Then is it safe to assume that you like Allura?”

“I do. I think she’s good for you,” Keith tried to hold back from sighing. Allura was amazing. She was mature, respectful, and easy to talk to. She was great for Shiro and Keith couldn’t be happier about that, but she worried him. He was supposed to expect Lance to move on from her and be into him after she broke up with him? How could he expect that when Allura was, well, just _her_. “I’m glad you met someone who’s nice.”

“That says a lot,” Shiro laughed. “Not even sarcastically. You complimenting someone is rare so I’ll take it sincerely.”

“Good, because I meant it sincerely.” No matter what kind of negative feelings shifted around in Keith’s thoughts, he cared about Shiro. He wouldn’t let his own insecurities get in the way of that.

“Guess I’m ready to try and officially have her be my girlfriend. Wish me luck.”

Keith grinned at Shiro.  “You don’t need it, but good luck anyway.”

***

After an hour and a half in a furniture store that Keith didn’t know existed, they packed up the car and went to find somewhere to eat.

The strip mall was big enough to have a few different options for them. He was so hungry he could eat anything right now. Shiro usually ate light so Keith turned his head from one direction to another looking for a place that Shiro might be interested in.

He spotted a small café across the street and opened his mouth to recommend it, until he realized he recognized people through the window. Not just any people, but Lance and Allura of all people.

Keith swallowed his words and walked faster. He didn’t want to know what was going on and frankly, if it was anything he feared it to be, he didn’t want Shiro knowing either.

“I’m really feeling a burger right now,” Keith pointed at a food joint a few stores ahead of them. “Let’s go there.”

That distracted Shiro enough for them to pass the café across the street. Keith looked back to see if they were spotted. Lance and Allura were too busy in their own joyful conversation to notice anyone outside apparently.

It didn’t _have_ to mean anything. It didn’t mean Lance and Allura were patching things up and it didn’t mean that Keith exhausted all of his chances; but what if it did? Keith wouldn’t stand a chance to Allura and not only would he lose Lance, Shiro would lose someone as well.

Keith’s heart sank in his chest. His breathing sped up and his voice came out staggered when he tried to speak.

“Keith, are you alright?” Shiro noticed Keith’s change in posture.

“I’m fine,” Keith nodded at Shiro and mostly to himself. “I’m just tired and hungry.”

Shiro looked at him for a second longer, unsurely. “Okay, well let’s get something then.”

They walked inside and started to order. Keith would have to stall them long enough in the restaurant for Lance and Allura to leave the café. He can handle the inner turmoil of this situation but if it got confronted in the open, and his fears were confirmed, he wouldn’t be able to keep up a strong facade.

 

***

Keith sat on the living room couch and stared idly at the TV screen in front of him. Pictures flashed by and the volume was up but he couldn’t hear anything. His thoughts were louder than anything else in the room.

His phone buzzed, bringing him back to reality. He took a peek at the lit up lock screen and saw Lance’s name. This was the third message Lance had sent in the last three hours and Keith still hasn’t replied.

It was a little over three hours ago that Keith was finishing up furniture shopping with Shiro. A little over three hours ago since he accidentally saw the guy he likes happily chatting away with his ex-girlfriend.

Keith couldn’t help but ask himself questions that he knew he didn’t have the answers to. He wondered if Lance still liked Allura and just didn’t want to admit it; if Allura regretted breaking up with Lance, it’s not like Shiro sealed the deal with Allura anyway. He said so himself earlier that day. Was she trying to get back together with Lance because Shiro was taking too long? She didn’t seem like the type of person to do that and Lance really didn’t seem like he wanted a second chance with her. He wondered if they were still friends and Lance just never told him. Does Shiro know?

Shiro was in the kitchen putting together a new shelf or something, Keith wasn’t sure at the moment. He was sure though, that he couldn’t ask Shiro about this because if Shiro doesn’t already know then he might start some unnecessary drama…or necessary drama. Keith tried his hardest to be okay with whatever it was that he saw but he couldn’t bring himself to.

He unlocked his phone and read the messages in order.

L: 2:45pm [What time did you want to meet tomorrow?]

L: 3:30pm [I’m kind of excited even tho we havent planned anything LOL]

L: 4:50pm [Theres something I want to tell you but ill wait for tomorrow]

Something he wants to tell him? In the pit of his stomach Keith felt like he needed to prepare for bad news. Was Lance going to tell him that he and Allura worked things out and they’re getting back together?

He always felt like it was better to consider the worst case scenario as reality but that was so much easier when Lance was at an arm’s length. It’s not the same when he felt like he finally had a chance.

Hearing that it was all a misunderstanding is what Keith really hoped for but he didn’t want to take the risk. Not yet anyway.

K: 6:07pm [I don’t think I can see you tomorrow]

Keith didn’t care what kind of connotation his message carried right now. He just wanted to cancel plans and take time to mentally prepare himself for the sting of rejection.

L: 6:07pm [Why not?]

K: 6:08pm [I just can’t see you]

L: 6:08pm [Did I do something to upset you?]

L: 6:09pm [I’m really sorry Keith]

K: 6:09pm [You didn’t do anything wrong]

L: 6:09pm [Ok…but did I do something to upset you?]

K: 6:10pm [I don’t know. Not sure, if I want to know]

L: 6:10pm [I did do something wrong then]

L: 6:10pm [Can I come over? I want to talk to you]

K: 6:11pm [Lance I don’t want to talk right now]

L: 6:11pm [I know you dont]

L: 6:11pm [I dont know whats going on but I dont want to lose you]

K: 6:12pm [You won’t lose me. I’m still your friend]

L: 6:12pm [Ok. And as your friend im coming over now]

L: 6:12pm [I was going to wait until tomorrow but youre making this really hard]

K: 6:15pm [Wait for what?]

K: 6:16pm [Can’t you just tell me over text?]

L: 6:16pm [Absolutely not]

L: 6:17pm [I’ll be there in seven minutes]

Keith started to panic. Seven minutes? The bus doesn’t go that fast. Is someone driving him? Keith took a deep breath. That wasn’t the problem here. The problem was that he needed to face Lance way sooner than he wanted to.

He didn’t want to do this. If he tells Lance about what’s going on, he’ll see right through him. It’s so embarrassing when it’s Allura that he’s up against. She’s beautiful and everything Lance could ask for in a person. If Lance has her then why is he so determined to figure out what’s wrong with Keith?

Keith sat on the couch regretting every romantic emotion he’s ever felt while waiting for the minutes to pass.

His phone started ringing. Lance of course.

He took a look around the room before answering. Shiro must have went into his room at some point because he didn’t see him around. He didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Shiro.

He bit his lip and took in a short breath.

“Hello?”

“ _Keith? Hey, I’m outside your door. You don’t have to see me right now but will you at least listen to me?”_

Keith walked over to the front door and peered through the peephole. Lance was standing there visibly out of breath and stricken with worry. He looked like he was running from a ghost.

“I’m listening.” Keith said quietly. He leaned against the door and listened to Lance speak from both outside and through the receiver.

“ _I’m sorry again for whatever happened. I might be being over dramatic by rushing over here but it feels like something important and if I can fix this I’ll do whatever I can so please talk to me.”_

Keith remained silent for a moment. He knew Lance wasn’t going to back down easily unless he said something to really hurt him. Keith didn’t want to hurt Lance, no matter how upset he was. The most he could do was tell Lance what was wrong. This situation was escalated enough as it was and if anyone was being dramatic, Keith knew it was himself.

“I saw you and Allura together today.” Keith tried to breathe away from the phone. He looked through the peephole again and saw Lance blinking cluelessly at the door. Was that a look of fear from being caught or innocence?

“ _That’s why you were mad?_ ”

“Mhm” He felt so stupid right now; like a little kid who had something of his stolen right under his nose, except Lance wasn’t his to begin with.

“ _Did that upset you because she’s Shiro’s girlfriend or because she’s my ex-girlfriend?_ ”

“She’s not technically Shiro’s girlfriend.”

“ _Would you be mad if she were?_ ” Keith shook his head even though Lance couldn’t see him.

“No. Very much the opposite actually.” He grumbled before taking a glance at Lance again. He seemed so much calmer now. He heard and watched Lance take in a breath of what looked like relief and smile.

“ _Then answer my first question Keith. Were you upset because she’s seeing Shiro or because she’s my ex-girlfriend?_ ”

“Because…she’s your ex.” Keith answered finally and Lance’s smile grew wider.

“ _I ran into her coincidentally. She told me about how happy Shiro makes her and I told her that I found someone who finally makes me happy too.”_

Keith stayed silent.

“ _She asked if I told this person how I felt and I said that I hadn’t but I wanted to soon,”_ Lance laughed to himself and the sound of it loosened the knots in Keith’s stomach. His face was burning and his heart was beating faster than he thinks he’s ever felt it go. “ _Soon is here sooner than I expected._ ”

That couldn’t mean anything else.

Keith sucked in his bottom lip and took deep breaths again. This time it wasn’t to try and tame the anxiety but instead to overcome the emotions that threatened to make themselves very apparent even over the phone.

_“Keith? Please open the door. Or at least say something. I know you’re right here next to me.”_

Keith composed himself as best as he could. There was no fighting the warmth in his cheeks or the quick patters of his heart but that was okay. It was okay because Lance felt the same way. Keith could see it in his nervous expression on the other side of the door.

He opened the door slowly at first and Lance looked at himself as if opening this door solved every problem Lance has ever had. It gave Keith butterflies that were for once not followed by a lingering sensation of pain.

“Finally.” Lance chuckled.

“So what did you come here to tell me?” Keith gave him a weak smile, the embarrassment clear as day on his face.

“I know you already know by now what I came here to tell you but I’ll say it properly this time,” Lance took a deep breath. His cheeks were flushed and even though this was one of those moments where Keith very much wanted to break eye contact, he couldn’t do it.

“Keith Kogane, I—”

“HEY KEITH! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SCREWDRIVER?”

Shiro’s voice startled the both of them and Lance actually screamed. He looked at Keith wide-eyed, the fear slowly subsiding.

“He took the words right out of my mouth,” Lance laughed; his hand was over his heart to calm himself. “That’s what I came here to tell you, Keith.”

Keith laughed too. Both of them red-faced and near tears for so many different reasons.

“It’s in the top drawer of the entertainment center!” Keith called back in between laughs.

Shiro immediately rounded the corner and peered at Keith incredulously.

“I didn’t know you were right there. You scared me, I thought you were in your room.” He looked between Lance and Keith in the doorway.

“ _You_ were scared?” Lance fumed loudly. “We were having a moment!”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you guys, I had my earphones in.” Shiro looked painfully awkward when he pointed to the wired earphones that dangled in his hand.

“It’s okay,” Keith shook his head and smiled. “We’ll go outside.”

Keith shyly gave Shiro a thumbs up before closing the door behind him and Lance.  

They silently walked down the stairs from Keith’s apartment and sat on the bottom step.

“I like you too, Lance,” Keith didn’t look at him, but he could feel Lance watching. “I’m sorry for being a complete jackass. I jumped the gun and didn’t even want to hear what you had to say before taking matters into my own hands. I feel like an idiot.”

“Welcome to my world.” Lance snorted.

“I just never had the best luck with you and when I saw you and Allura together, you two looked really happy together, I didn’t think I’d stand a chance.” Keith sat on the top step of the apartment’s stairwell.

“There’s not even a competition to be had,” Lance sat beside him. “I’m over Allura. Totally, completely, and happily over Allura.”

“I know,” Keith shook his head. “I was being inconsiderate of everything you’ve said before. It just made sense in that moment.”

“I can understand that,” Lance looked at Keith. “I thought you were in love with Shiro up until five minutes ago.”

“Seriously? He’s like a brother.” Keith scoffed and chuckled.

“Yeah but like a super hot older brother that you’re not actually related to. You very well _could_ have liked him.” Lance argued.

“I guess we were just both really wrong then.”

“Thank God though.”

“Thank God.” Keith agreed.

Lance bounced his knee and smiled at Keith. “So, you really like me? Like _like_ me?”

“What are you 12?” Keith tried to frown but Lance’s giddiness was too cute. “I should be asking you that question. You never did actually say it yet.”

Lance grinned at Keith. The pink on his cheeks haven’t faded since he tried to tell Keith how he felt the first time. Keith could feel Lance’s hand grab his and squeeze.

“I really like you Keith. I wanted to tell you as soon as I knew but I was worried that you’d think badly of me because of it.”

“Why would I?” Keith was surprised he could muster up the courage to even speak while Lance was voluntarily holding his hand.

“I just got out of relationship so it looks bad. I really do like you, and I even liked you before; like way before when I first met you, but, well, you know the story from there.” Lance laughed awkwardly.

“You _did_ say you were going to hit on me back then.”

“I did. I really was. You were so cute back then,” Lance looked down at their hands before looking back up at Keith. “And you are now. Sorry I missed the opportunity back then.” Lance mumbled.

“Guess we’ll just have to make up for lost time.” Keith’s voice lowered. He looked at Lance; his bright blue eyes; the red tint in his cheeks; his pink lips. Maybe now was the time to make fantasy into reality.

Or maybe not.

“Hey Lance!” Hunk was downstairs, apparently unable to read social cues. “Is everything okay? Pidge needs us to pick up groceries asap, like it’s one of her really bad cookie dough ice cream craving times and we all know how that goes when she craves food and doesn’t get it and all I’m saying is that I don’t want to die tonight.”

“Oh my god Hunk,” Lance groaned loudly and dramatically enough for Hunk to catch on. “Tell Pidge to call one of those food delivery companies.”

“Um, I guess I can call her and—”

“I’m coming Hunk, just hold on.” Lance called out and sighed quietly. “Sorry Keith, we keep having our moments ruined.”

“It’s okay. I’d rather have our moments ruined than not have them at all.”

“This is why I like you Keith.” Lance gripped Keith’s hand in his and leaned forward, kissing Keith on the cheek swiftly. Keith felt the spot on his cheek burning hotter than any sensation he’s felt before. It was just a peck and it unraveled him completely.

Lance stood up and coughed. He looked down at Keith with an embarrassed smile on his face.

“So we’re still hanging out tomorrow right?”

“Yeah,” Keith continued sitting down on the step. “Sorry I almost cancelled.”

Lance waved a hand in front of his face. “No big deal now. I’m happy now; really _really_ happy.”

“Me too Lance,” Keith looked down at Hunk who was nervously looking at his phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Lance smiled at him again before jolting down the stairs to meet Hunk. He slapped him on the back playfully and laughed while Hunk seemed to anxiously explain himself.

Keith couldn’t help the smile now fixated on his face. He and Lance liked each other. Lance, who hated him for years, was romantically interested in him. What a dream come true.

He stayed on the steps outside repeating every word Lance said and occasionally pressing his fingers against the spot where Lance kissed him.

Keith wasn’t sure if he should thank or curse the misunderstandings between him and Lance; he wouldn’t entirely be in this situation without them. He’d thank them for now and call it a day.

K: 6:50 [Let’s make tomorrow a real date]

L: 6:50 [Oh my god, youre a romantic aren’t you?]

K: 6:51 [I’ll cancel for real this time]

L: 6:51 [No Keithers I love it. I’ll even dress up nice]

L: 6:52 [Im already making plans in my head]

K: 6:52 [I suggested it so shouldn’t I make the plans?]

L: 6:52 [Did you have something in mind?]

K: 6:53 [Not really yet]

L: 6:53 […]

L: 6:53 [Ok, so im already making plans in my head]

K: 6:54 [Fine]

L: 6:55 [WELL Keith ill show you a good time. Don’t worry.]

K: 6:56 [I’ll leave you to it]

L: 6:56 [:)]

K: 6:57 [Have a goodnight Lance. Thanks for everything today.]

L: 6:57 [Night Keithers. I’m glad I came. See you tomorrow.]

Keith stood up, he should probably help Shiro by now, and answer all the questions he was bound to have after Lance accused Shiro of ruining a “moment”. He spent an extra three minutes standing outside the door trying to revive his resting emo face yet to no avail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've finally squashed the thirst of this slow burn guys--onwards to fluff!  
> Tumblr: [rosie-the-rascal](https://rosie-the-rascal.tumblr.com/)


End file.
